DC New 52 - Week 4

4 weeks and 51 comic reviews later, the first month of the New 52 is done and in the books. (Yes, I missed a couple reviews along the way, whaddyawantfromme). Each week, I took home a pile of comics, then read and reviewed each one. I occasionally had to scrub my brain of the violence and gratuitous nudity (okay, I didn't scrub all of it), but it was an interesting challenge; Reviewing books has never been something that came naturally to me. Personally, I don't like picking apart the medium I love, and professionaly, I really don't like speaking too critically of any of our product, even though I think it's important to be honest. But I learned a couple things along the way, so I guess I could conclude my month-long reviewing experiment with "it was fun".

And I am never, ever doing it again.

... although Sean and David are telling me these reviews are driving traffic to the blog, and that I might be doing more of this in the future.

Oy.

--

So here we are, Week 4 of the New 52. Coming into September, it was the last week of the month that looked the most intriguing:  Cult characters (Firestorm), Old concepts by hot new talent (I, Vampire), popular b-lister written by popular A-lister (Aquaman), several artists taking on writing duties for the first time (Manapul on Flash, Van Sciver on Firestorm) and one high-profile artist writing again for the first time in a long time (Perez on Superman).

A very interesting batch of books. And overall, I'd say this is the best comics week of the month.

Hands down.

So let's get into this and see if I have any more rage-induced meltdowns.

Run Forest, run.

* Flash #1 - Francis Manapul had some assistance on the writing chores, but wow... this did something no comic has ever done before: Made Barry Allen likeable. Sorry Silver Age fans, but to me, Barry Allen is the equivalent of the bow tie; it's quaint, is nice to bring out every couple years, but gets really boring, really fast. But yeah, this was a great read, and you can see Manapul really playing with the layout and format of each page. Reminds me a bit of JH Williams on Batwoman. I think this book has serious potential to go from very-good to Fantastic.

And that's a Flash Fact.

(Sorry, couldn't help myself. It was that good.)

* Justice League Dark #1 - If you're going to take a bunch of Vertigo fan-favorites and put them together on a Justice League-like team, then Peter Milligan is the guy to do it. Whereas Red Lanterns sometimes felt a little too mainstream, this one is dark, creepy and has just the right tone. I see they cleaned up Zatanna's costume a little, too. Good idea, the fan backlash on that was getting a little hoary. The art on this was a good mix of Vertigo and Super-hero, but it felt a little rushed sometimes. Great start, this looks like it'll go the distance.

* Blackhawks #1 - Had to struggle to finish this one, but that's because I don't have much connection to the characters. Okay, I'm lying, I have _zero_ connection to these characters. Have I ever read a Blackhawks story? Hm. Food for thought. Anyways, the story was okay, the art felt rushed here, too, in places. This was probably the most "meh"-like book of the week for me. Really didn't do much for me.

* Voodoo #1 - My Wildstorm-induced rage has been whittled away after the last month, so no red ring this time about how they've destroyed one of my precious characters (not yet, at least. keep reading). This book was a little gratuitous, and felt a little light on the plot. Whereas Catwoman was cheesecakey and over-the-top but still had a good story, Voodoo was lacking in substance.

Look at him. So cute.

* Annihilators Earthfall #1 - Ah, Abnett and Lanning. I may have a mancrush on these guys. The cosmic Marvel books have been awesome the last couple years, and this books is no exception. Plus, look at that cover! Beta Ray Bill bringing THE SMACKETH DOWN on the Avengers? Totally sold. And it's got a talking Russian dog cosmonaut.

What? Oh, sorry, yeah, Annihilators Earthfall is not part of the New 52. Or, um, published by DC. But it's a damn good book anyways. Go buy it.

IT'S GOT A TALKING RUSSIAN DOG COSMONAUT, FER CRYIN' OUT LOUD.


* Fury of Firestorm #1 - A little heavy-handed with the race conversations, and I was surprised that they went for a cold reboot of the Firestorm mythos, instead of playing off the Brightest Day stories, which, frankly, set them up just fine. But they lost me at the end with the 2 Firestorms and Fury. That just didn't do it for me at all, sorry.

* Aquaman #1 - Oh hey, this was good. Good, clean, bright, shiny art. Aquaman just popped right off the page, and the story was fun. I had a "They did this bit far better on South Park" moment about halfway through the story, but I really dug this. Good action, good laughs, good drama, good ending. Best Geoff Johns story of the month, hands down.

* Green Lanterns New Guardians #1 - Oh. Oh wait. What. What are they-what is this. What.. Why..  Why are they remaking Kyle's origin? What is- Kyle has friends? No DC, no Kyle Rayner is the creative artistic type. WE HAVE NO FRIENDS, DC. What is, wait he's being compared to Hal? That SILVER AGE LOSER? ARE YOU KIDDING ME? WHAT IS THIS- WHY, DC? WHY DO YOU HATE ME SO? WHY CAN'T YOU JUST I DON'T UNDERSTAND- WHYDOYOUMAKEMESOANGRYOUWONTLIKEITWHENI'MANGRYYHULKSMASHHULK
WANTREDRINGTURNINTOREDLANTERNAND...

Sigh. Okay, this was a really, really solid first issue. Quick origin, then a jump right into the action, while quickly drawing comparisons between him and Hal, and... man, Grant Morrisson did this much better in JLA about 12 years ago. Oh, but hey, the Rainbow Corps show up, along with my main squeeze, Bleez. Good times.

* All-Star Western #1 - Jonah Hex in Ye Olde Times of Gotham City? Yeah, this was fun, although it felt a bit padded. Add in one of the Arkham's, and all the backstory of the city created by Scott Snyder in Gates of Gotham (great story), and the writing was pretty good. The art was flat though, not a lot of contrast in color or tone. I understand why they went for this particular look, but they overdid it a bit.

* Savage Hawkman #1 - Again, the art didn't look completely finished here. The writing was okay, but nothing special. And I have to say: Hawkman is the posterboy for screwed-up continuity @ DC for the last 25 years. I don't think he should've been part of the reboot, and I don't know that I quite understood his origin story in this one. Weak first issue and the weakest of the week.

* Teen Titans #1 - Fresh start with the characters and I liked it. The art crackled, and the writing was solid. "N.O.W.H.E.R.E." seems a bit much, though, but Lobdell and Booth did a good job here. Nice hook on the ending, even though we probably knew that was coming.

Nice um, bunny ears.

* Batman The Dark Knight #1 - Man, David Finch can really draw, can't he? If he can stay monthly,and undo the mess he's made over the last year on his first aborted attempt on this series, maybe he can salvage his reputation. Gorgeous book. As for the writing, I have a soft spot for Paul Jenkins: A number of years ago, he wrote an Inhumans mini-series, with artwork by Jae Lee. Beautiful art, great story, I think it's Jenkins' best work ever. But everything he's written since (with the exception of the original Sentry story) has lacked the magic and mystery he put into Inhumans. The writing on this one is no exception, the words felt awkward and forced sometimes. It's been awhile since Jenkins had a monthly gig, so I'm hoping he gets back into things on this title. But for now, the art is enough for me to say good things about this one, even though that last page was just... yeesh. Don't know about that.

* I, Vampire #1 - I had high hopes for this one, and it did pretty well. The art was a wee bit too Vertigo-esque (more of that rushed feeling I've been getting over the last month.) The writer, Joshua Fialkov wrote the INCREDIBLY creepy Echoes for Top Cow earlier this year. That story sent chills up my spine. Great stuff. I, Vampire succeeds in setting up the first issue, although the art sometimes got in the way of the story. I needed to re-read this to make sure I had the characters right.

* Superman #1 - And now, something slightly different. For all the internet hooplah about Scott Lobdell writing three of the New52, it went practically unnoticed that George Perez was jumping in on the "other" Superman book. The writing was distinctly old-school, but I came away feeling like I actually _read_ a comic book. It had weight and heft, it felt like a story that had consequence. A good done-in-one, although the "old-school" feeling was a little much some times. The art was serviceable, no flaws, didn't feel rushed, but I wish they'd gone with someone a little flashier for the first issue, y'know?

New dress code at work? I'm sold.

...aaaand that's it. Come back this weekend as I blog my concluding thoughts on the first month of the New 52, talk about what we're doing at NYCC, and I smoke a hand-rolled cigar brought to me directly from the New Orleans aka The Big Easy.

No. Really.

-Scott.

(This blog post was written with the assistance of Ommwriter. Simple music-based word editor that's highly recommended for any writing types out there. )