I've read about 4 collections worth of Abe Sapien, and it's the only time I felt like I wasted my money. I understand that this final arc is where things are coming together, but I feel like a multiple-times fool already.

I thought Morrison's Action was a good, if not great, start to work from. It got much, much worse for me as things went on, though my ears pricked up a bit during the Truth storyline.

Wait..What?? has nicely in-depth conversations about the comics released that week and certain news items, it helps that Graeme writes about comics for The Hollywood Reporter, so his depth of knowledge is particularly good I think. I will say each podcast regularly takes about 10 minutes or so to really get going…

It's also impossible to explain this new Superman status quo without utterly confusing a non-reader, as I learned when I tried to relay this information to my s/o.

Wait…What? is the only comics podcast I listen to regularly outside of Comic Books Are Burning In Hell (which is an indie comics podcast, that probably doesn't meet your requirements in terms of sound), and the occassional episode of Silence!. I generally can't stand most comics podcasts, especially not Jay and Miles,…

There's a huge Hellboy line of comics over at Dark Horse though that is shared-universe in a way that's just a little slimmer than say, Valiant, and much more rewarding imo.

Y: The Last Man, Saga, Hawkeye, Sandman, Scalped, Sweet Tooth, maybe Fables? Any of the Brubaker/Phillips collaborations (Criminal, The Fade Out, etc). My girlfriend REALLY loves The Vision and she never reads comics.

I read all of Southern Bastards in a weekend, and so, it remained pretty amazing throughout for me. Though I could see how the huge delays would be a problem if you didn't do it the same way.

Yeah, I can't tell who this comic was supposed to appeal to. Long-time Superman fans? They don't give a shit about New 52 Superman from my experience.

I just assumed he was, especially with the way Mignola was talking about him on the Orbital Podcast. Roberson confirmed on twitter that he's writing more Hellboy and The BPRD (Mignola just oversees the plotting on those now I think), and he's got that new Witchfinder book that was just solicited.

Rebirth-wise:

Over the past year, I read basically 20 years worth of Hellboy, BPRD, and other titles in the Mignolaverse. It was one of the most rewarding reading experiences I've had. I have all six Library Editions of Hellboy and they're probably my prized comics possessions now. And BPRD might be the finest mainstream-style…

This week is all about Rebirth and Hellboy for me. Sure I'll get to Casanova eventually, but I'm finally pumped about DC again for the first time in a while. Hope these things meet my (admittedly measured) expectations.

I'd also argue that, Hellboy in Hell and Island aside, much of their respective output is in the same storytelling vein as Marvel and DC's house-style.

Rumors I've heard from folks in the know is that only Geoff will handle the Watchmen-related matters for the company, so you're probably in the clear.

My friend posited that the new heroes popping up in King's Batman run might be Nite Owl and Silk Spectre in disguise. Not a bad theory. I don't think Rorschach is coming back though, Rich is probably going for a stretch there.

Also, I thought it was funny that if you didn't read Tomasi's Superman story, it looks like New 52 Superman just exploded off-panel between Justice League 50 and Rebirth.

Rebirth:
Shared my thoughts in a separate post, but I dug it up to a point.

You're surely right, which is why I'm hoping Mr. Oz is not Adrian Veidt, because that reveal would be intended only for the audience and mean little in-story…shades of Star Trek Into Darkness and Spectre.

Honestly, the ethics of using the Watchmen characters really don't bother me that much. DC owns them, Moore and Gibbons signed a deal, it's just what it is…so long as they don't actively go in and add new pages to Watchmen itself, they can do whatever the fuck they want with those characters before and after that…