Jeff, You're right. I wasn't much taken with Color in the beginning, and I agree that the name is lame. On the other hand, since their flagship magazine was named "Black and White," I can understand why they felt compelled to call the new branch "Color."
But with the current issue it strikes me that they may have hit their stride. If you can lay hands on a copy, check the work of Katherine Westerhout. She's doing the kind of thing in Detroit that I love to do on the western prairies. Of course, I grew up in a suburb of Detroit, so I have a special connection to some of these pictures. But the way she handles light is what's important. Any photographer, no matter how experienced, can learn from her work.
Then there's Tom Wik, a contractor who does Rolleiflex pictures of weird houses. Fascinating stuff, and very well done. He sees things that all of us tend to overlook.
Steven Gregory's work falls back into the "color for the sake of color" kind of thing that filled the mag in its earlier issues, but he does it very well, and I kind of like it. His "Death's Fortress, San Francisco" is a striking piece of work even though it's grossly overworked in post-processing.
Not everything in the mag is great, but if they keep this up, "Color" will become a force to be reckoned with.