Yeah, Aquaman. Go figure. The laughingstock of the sea has this week's strongest, in my opinion, book.
So, on to the reviews, and then I'll let you know which titles I'm keeping, which are in danger of being dropped, and which I'm definitely dropping. This is a feature I plan on keeping, and doing once all of the month's titles are out. That is, between the #1's and #2's, I'll do this, between the 2's and 3's, etc.
So, without any further ado, the reviews:
All-Star Western #1 – Well…it’s hard to
really call this a western, honestly. The only western thing it has, really, is
Jonah Hex. Everything else about it, from the location in Gotham to Dr. Arkham
helping Jonah Hex, is distinctly…well, not western. All told, though, that is
about the only real issue I have with this one. A nice mystery being set up, a
serial killer targeting prostitutes, a mysterious society which may, or may
not, be involved at some level, even Jonah Hex’s characterization all work
together to create quite a nice little book. Something that took me a minute
was the florid, purple prose at the beginning, with no accreditation. It’s not
until you realize that it’s from Dr. Arkham’s journals that it all kind of
clicks together and meshes. Of course Arkham would speak like that. It was nice, for me, to see some of the names
mentioned, from Cobblepot to Cyrus Pinckney (Solomon Grundy.)…all of which gave
me a little thrill each time I saw them. Jimmy Palmiotti’s art fits perfectly
here, with a nicely limited color palette, which really evokes the 1880s when
the story takes place. I look forward to the next issue immensely.
Aquaman #1 – I did not realize before
going in that Geoff Johns and Ivan Reis were working this book. It feels,
structurally, a lot like Green Lantern:
Rebirth, in that Johns seems to be going for a revamping of the character.
They’re aware going in, and highlight a lot of the jokes that have been made in
the past about Aquaman, which was nice for me, honestly. I’ve never really
gotten the hate. One of the things that worked for me here is how nobody, cops,
criminals, citizens, take Aquaman seriously. And Ivan Reis’ artwork really
captures his resentment at being treated like a lesser hero amidst Superman,
Batman, Wonder Woman, etc, when it’s freaking obvious how strong he is. I mean,
upending a secured van is no mean feat. The nicest thing about this issue? We
finally find out how Aquaman manages to get by on land. All in all, a good
issue, and I look forward to many more.
Batman: The Dark Knight #1 – Something I realized reading this issue was
that DC has apparently decided to turn Batman into a kind of internal Chatty
Cathy. I mean, he’s terse and laconic as Batman, but the narration boxes,
usually from his point of view, go on forever! Anyway…here, as opposed to the
other Batman titles, Batman is taking on evil, both as Batman and as Bruce
Wayne. Look, I’m not even going to try to summarize or review this one. There
are simply too many Batman titles where he is the star. I understand, Batman’s
cool. He’s one of my favorite characters, and, more often than not, one I
gravitate towards. But with ten of the New 52 titles focusing on or featuring
him, I’m more than a little sick of it. I don’t even like the story set up in
B:TDK, at least not the supervillain part. The GCPD part is intriguing, though,
with Internal Affairs trying to figure out how Bruce Wayne is funding Batman
and who in GCPD is giving him information. It’s a good mystery set-up. But,
honestly, there’s no reason this story needs its own title. For me, calling the
book The Dark Knight should imply more of a horror slant, or at least a
thriller/noir-ish set up. I guess my biggest problem is that all of the main
Batman titles feel absolutely the same. How would I do it, you ask? I’m glad
you did. What I would do is this: Batman
would be about the more fantastical, superhero-supervillain stories. Detective Comics would be about the
mystery-solving detective Batman who, in all honesty, is rarely seen anymore. Batman and Robin I would use to explore
the dynamic of how he interacts with all of his Robins, past and present. This
one I discussed above. The other ones, where he’s just featured? I’d probably
pull him from all but Justice League and JLI, honestly.
Blackhawks #1 – I’m not really clear on
the set-up for this one. I think it’s
a covert team that deals with meta-human threats that are well below the
Justice League level. Or maybe a black ops version of the JLI, since they seem
to get funding from the UN. It doesn’t really matter too much to me, since I
thought this was a well written, entertaining comic that pulled me in from the
beginning, and set up some nice arc plots, as well as relationships that could
drastically change at the drop of a hat. It was a quick, fun comic, and I look
forward to more from it. One thing I was lukewarm on was the artwork. Something
about this particular style is incredibly hit or miss for me. When it works, it
works really well, but when it doesn’t, it just bugs me.
Green Lanterns: New Guardians #1 – Kyle Rayner can’t seem to catch a break, can he?
He’s goes from being the Torchbearer, keeping the light of the Lanterns alive,
to being accused of stealing a whole spectrum of rings…guy’s got it rough. I’ll
admit, I think I like where this is going, but this issue doesn’t give us too
many clues as to where that is, but that’s the way I like it, so I’m not
complaining. The artwork was gorgeous, and the various Lanterns having their
rings abandon them was handled well, I thought. It’ll be interesting to me to
see how former ring-hunter Fatality handles finding out Kyle’s been chosen by
the Spectrum. Another thing I like was the twist on Kyle’s origin, specifically
the first five minutes of his getting the ring. Certainly is different from the
way I remember it. But ya know, that’s just that whole “new twist on remembered
stories” that DC’s doing here, and, for me at least, it wasn’t a nonsensical
change, and I dug it.
I, Vampire #1 – Stop me if you’ve heard
this one: A vampire who sired a lady who turned megalomaniacal regrets his
former life of hedonistic blood-drinking and tries to set right what he did.
Yeah, this one goes in a different direction from Angel, but there are, at this
point, more similarities than differences. He even spends his days slaying
vampires, for Pete’s sake! I was left pretty lukewarm by this one, which is
unfortunate, because I really wanted to like it. We’ll see where it goes, but
it’s seeming pretty paint by numbers at this point. I was a little intrigued by
the setting of this, though. It seems like, unless I’m mis-reading it, it’s
taking place on 9/11 at the Towers. Someone’s got some pretty big, brass
cojones, if that’s the case. I’ll give this one a few issues, but I’m not
optimistic about keeping it, honestly.
Justice League Dark #1 – Another set-up
I like, a horror take on the Justice League, and it makes sense why they’d pull
this team together. Magic hurts Superman, Cyborg can’t figure it out, Wonder
Woman is overpowered, Batman’s a normal human. So you bring in the supernatural
heavy hitters of Zatanna, Shade the Changing Man, John Constantine, Deadman and
Madame Xanadu. Digging it. The fun part, for me, will be seeing how these
characters finally meet and how they’ll interact with each other. The art fit
this book perfectly, balancing strangely ephemeral and realistic quite well.
Peter Milligan does good team books (He did X-Factor
for quite some time, and established a nice, noir detective feel to it.), so I
look forward to seeing how things develop in his hands.
Savage Hawkman #1 – A hero with a
multiple choice past, Tony S. Daniel seems to have streamlined that past quite
well. Hawkman has, at various points, been an archaeologist who stumbled upon a
strange mystical power, an alien soldier (Or policeman, I was never clear.),
and just some guy with wings, and here he’s the best of all of that. I was
pleasantly surprised by this one, something I didn’t expect judging by the
cover, which seems to think that 90s excess was the way to go. The reluctant
hero who has his powers stolen storyline this seems to be going with is dealt
with deftly here, I think, and I look forward to seeing where it goes. One
problem I had, though, was the villain’s name. I mean, really, “Morphicius?”
Why not just name him “Evil-Blobby-Man?” It’s a minor thing, comparatively, but
in a decent book, it stuck out like a sore thumb.
Superman #1 – Hoo, boy, was this a letdown.
From the very first pages, you realize that more has changed than you realized.
A new Daily Planet, which may no longer be a newspaper (It was a little
unclear.) relationships changed (Lois doesn’t even seem to have a thing for
Superman…and she’s kind of a slut.) and thing just generally off. I didn’t
realize at first, but it was written by George Pérez, and like most comic-book
creators who made it big in the 80s, a little bit on the wordy side. I keep
going back and forth about this issue. At points, I really dug some of the stuff
they did. De-powering Superman was nice, and talking about his power creep
struck me as a nice touch. And it’s not the first time in the New 52 it’s been
mentioned. The art is also somewhat uneven in a lot of regards. Overall, I
probably wouldn’t keep up with this book, if it weren’t meant to be a flagship
title.
Recommendation:
Trade paperback.
Teen Titans #1 – Man, teenagers sure do
have it all figured out, don’t they? Especially superpowered ones who think
they know better than the people they deign to help. So why wouldn’t a shadowy
organization try to round them up, for their own protection, of course. I like
this book, a lot, and not just because I once owned the entirety of “The Judas
Contract.” Red Robin, aka Tm Drake, is trying to expose NOWHERE, and decides to
pull together a team of teenagers to do so. Nice, simple, almost elegant
set-up. There are several nice action set pieces in this book which advance the
story rather than becoming the story. It’s nice to see that Scott Lobdell can
write female characters who AREN’T vapid sluts, honestly. That whole thing with
Starfire makes me think it might be an editorial mandate. But I digress. The
artwork is pretty darn good, by funny book standards, so thank you Brett Booth.
It’ll be nice to see where this goes. Also, it puts the last few pages on Superboy #1 into a whole new light.
Wonder how those are going to fold together, honestly. I’m a little leery of
crossovers in books that haven’t had more than, oh, ONE issue. I’ll let it play
out some more, though, before I pass judgment. Something you fanbois out there
might consider doing every once in a while.
The Flash #1 – A fun and,
appropriately, fast-paced book, I really dug The Flash. I mean, seriously, this is one of the easiest to read
books of the week, even with a nicely involved plot. And a last page that makes
you rethink the previous 21. The artwork keeps pace with the story well, adding
a nice dimension to the story, even. I will say that this book had something
which I thought had all but disappeared from comics: The use of the title page
to enhance the story. Normally, the title is just superimposed on the page, and
that’s that. Here, though, in addition to the nicely retro origin summary, the
letters of Flash are used as panels to show you the Flash in action, and I
could not be giddier about it. It made me want to go out and look up everything
Francis Manapul had ever done!
The Fury of Firestorm, The Nuclear Men #1 –
Yawn. Honestly, I was bored by this book. A lot of fairly formulaic plotting,
writing, characters, no real depth to anyone or anything, I just couldn’t get
into this one. Maybe it’s good for the Firestorm fans, but there just wasn’t a
lot here that I can, in all honesty, recommend. Even the anti-stereotypical
characters are stereotypes. And, of
course the two characters who were antagonistic toward each other are going
to end up superpowered and fighting each other. And, of course, one of the characters will have a gizmo in their locker
that the villains are after. And, of
course, the villain will try to be charming while threatening to kill
everyone. And, of course, the villain
will kill people even when he promised not to. I was just utterly disappointed
in this book. Maybe it’ll read better as a trade.
Recommendation:
Trade.
Voodoo #1 – So…yeah. Voodoo is an odd little book. One I’m
not sure what to make of yet. The plot, what little there is, seems fairly
standard, with a possible alien infiltration…or maybe just an alien who wants
to “know about our Earther ways.” I dunno. Ron Marz is usually pretty reliable
with a good plot, so I’m willing to try this one out a bit longer than usual.
The art, though, is absolutely gorgeous! Crisp and well-defined (Heh…see, it
takes place in a strip club, so…yeah.), it really works well here. There’s just
such a division between the artwork and the starkness of the plot that the
overall effect is one of being unbalanced. Which, I admit, may have been what
they were going for. As with all first issues, I’ll give it a few more before I
truly decide if I like it or not.
BONUS REVIEW: Brilliant #1 – I know, I haven’t reviewed any Marvel titles yet
here. I thought I’d change that this week. But, honestly, Marvel’s company
continuity is such a mess, that I didn’t know where to begin. I don’t like just
jumping in without knowing if I’m picking a good spot (Hence, my reading of DC’s
New 52 line.), so I was floundering for a while…until I found Brilliant by Marvel’s Uber-Team of Brian
Michael Bendis and Mark Bagley. I’m not sure how much this counts, though,
since it’s under Marvel’s Icon line for their creator owned titles. But, meh,
my blog, my rules, I’m counting it. The set up is this: College age super
geniuses in various fields (Biology, physics, etc.) realize that, in the middle
of the last century, science and science fiction were feeding off of each other,
and a lot of the big ideas have come to pass, except for one: Superpowers. So
they decide to crack it. I gotta say, when Bendis hits, he hits on all cylinders
and doesn’t go back, and he’s hitting here. It’s hard to say how long this
origin is going to go, as Bendis has a penchant for nice, drawn out stories
that make you care about all of the characters, even the villains. And Magley’s
artwork is simply magnificent…as always. Back in the day, Ultimate Spider-Man was one of my favorite titles to read, because
of how well Bagley’s words work with Bendis’ words, and vice versa. All told, a
nicely done book that makes me wish it wasn’t 60 days until the next issue.
So there you have it. Next week starts in on the continuing stories and arcs of these books, so it'll be nice to see how things pick up from the initial dip in the pool. It's quite a brave thing DC's doing, and, overall, it's worked well for me.
Now, as promised, the list of books I'm going to keep for sure, the ones in danger of being dropped, and the ones I'm definitely dropping:
Keep
- Animal Man
- Action Comics
- Green Arrow
- Batgirl
- Batwing
- Justice League International
- Static Shock
- Batwoman
- Resurrection Man
- Demon Knights
- Superboy
- Frankenstein, Agent of S.H.A.D.E.
- Birds of Prey
- DC Universe Presents
- Green Lantern Corps
- Supergirl
- Green Lantern
- Wonder Woman
- All-Star Western
- Aquaman
- Justice League Dark
- Justice League
- The Flash
- Teen Titans
In Danger
- Detective Comics
- Men of War
- OMAC
- Swamp Thing
- Deathstroke
- Grifter
- Mister Terrific
- Suicide Squad
- Batman and Robin
- Red Lanterns
- Batman
- Blue Beetle
- Captain Atom
- Catwoman
- Legion of Super Heroes
- Nightwing
- Red Hood and the Outlaws (I almost dropped this one completely, but I'll give Lobdell et al a chance, especially after Teen Titans.)
- Batman: The Dark Knight
- Blackhawks
- Green Lantern: New Guardians (Yeah, I'm thinking about dropping a GL title. It's hard, but this one just didn't do too much for me, after all is said.)
- Savage Hawkman
- Superman
- Voodoo
- Hawk & Dove - Which I'm not even going to bother to continue with, actually. I can't get myself past the Liefeld touch.
- Stormwatch - There just wasn't much that I could honestly care about in this book, and I wanted to like it, I really did.
- Legion Lost - There was too much going on here that was based on the mega-event, Flashpoint, the immediately preceded the New 52, so until I catch up there, this one's not going to make any sense to me.
- I, Vampire - Which is, honestly, a disappointment to me...too much of one to continue on with the book.
- The Fury of Firestorm, the Nuclear Men - Even favorite writers and artists can hit stumbling block, so I hope this one picks up down the road, but the first issue did nothing for me.
As promised, my next post will be about the covers. I know I said I would talk about myself more, and I promise that I will in the future. It just was not a good week, personally, to do so. A lot more going on in Chris-ville, and far more events transpiring than I wanted to.
Keep reading, everyone! If there are any reviews of mine you disagree with, or other books (On-going and mini.) that you think I should be reading, or would like my take on, give me a shout, and I'll be more than happy to look them over.
See you next time!
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