The second half of this week's new DCU books contains a fair number of obscure, quirky and non-superhero books, and to me, THIS is where the New 52 experiment will succeed or fail. It's one thing to revamp big franchises that are likely to benefit from name recognition, but if DC really wants to attract new readers, it's got to put out (and ACTUALLY MARKET) books that appeal to readers who don't really care for the superhero genre. Think Sandman in the late 80s and early 90s and how it brought in a large number of new (and female!) readers. I'm still of the opinion that to get new readers, you need to stop it with the low-value, relatively high-priced monthly rags already, but perhaps the e-format will do the job. The question now is, are the "alternative" any good, and can they be embraced by "alternative" audiences?
Animal Man #1Not surprisingly, Jeff Lemire knows how to do both realistic family drama and creepy fantasy-horror AND do them well. His Animal Man has a weird, indy feel that seems to stand at the nexus of what Morrison, Milligan, Veitch and Delano did with the character previously, drawing on the best elements of each. Travel Foreman's art is expressive and quirky, perfect for that contrast of the every day and surreal horror imagery. He is weakest with the pure superhero pin-up shots, but Buddy Baker's new costume is pretty terrible and generic, so it'd probably be weak even if Foreman was as comfortable with superheroes as he is with everything else. Thankfully, that's not really the main focus of the series, but rather the rise of an ancient power in the Earth's morphogenic field, and Buddy's daughter Maxine's dark, developing powers. To me though, half the attracting to Animal Man is in how his powers are used. Good news! Lemire is awesome at that. When Buddy took cats' super-napping ability to fall asleep quickly, I surrendered my heart to the book immediately.
Don't call it a reboot: Looks like Buddy was never a member of the Justice League. It's possible past Maxine stuff from the Vertigo days has been expunged as well.
Upgrade? This is the best Animal Man stuff since Morrison's.
Will read? Definitely. This is right up my alley.
Recommended? Lemire does the right thing by introducing us to Animal Man in a faux-magazine interview on the first page. Easy to get into. If you like horror, you will like this. If you have a family, you will like this. If you like indy films, music or art, you will like this. If you like good comics, you will like this.
Batwing #1"Africa's Batman" seems like the sort of idea that wouldn't support more than a mini-series, but the potential demonstrated in the first issue makes me wish it survives a bit longer than that. I found the character of Batwing immediately likable, especially his relationship with police colleague Kia Okuku, a rare honest officer he's trying to keep honest. The efficiently introduced supporting cast also includes Matu Ba, an Alfred figure that used to work for a child rescue organization. There's enough here for me to resent Batman's guest-appearance, even if I respect the idea that a series like this needs a but of midwifery (but if you're not going to announce it on the cover...). Writer Judd Winick also makes good use of the African continent, its politics and the realities of the Third Wold, while also injecting a back history that includes African superheroes. The art by Ben Oliver has a photo-real painterly style that reminds me of Invincible Iron Man's Salvador Larroca, at least as good with action beats, though better at representing facial expressions. The unmotivated angled panels are an unfortunate tic of his (Alpha Flight 0.1 was the same), so he has some work to do as far as composition goes, but this is a fairly good-looking comic with a slick movie feel.
Don't call it a reboot: Set up in Batman Inc., there hasn't really been time for him to develop anything a writer would want to reboot.
Upgrade? Didn't have a series before.
Will read? It's a good start. I like the setting and the characters introduced. I will keep reading for now.
Recommended? It's not perfect, but I think Batman fans (a group that includes a lot of non-comics readers) looking for something a little different, or readers who are interested in African politics, could find their due here. Though if you're the latter, you're better off looking for the latest Unknown Soldier trade collections.
Green Arrow #1J.T. Krul was writing it before, and he's writing it again. Any change? Well, this Green Arrow seems to come with a bit less baggage and fewer chin hairs, and in exchange moves to Seattle (more DC books seem to take place in real world cities, trading away something that was unique about the DCU for... what?), where Queen Industries becomes an Apple analog (get your Q-pad now!). Oliver has some computer experts working for him behind the scenes which makes me wonder if a lot of books will spawn their own versions of Oracle now that she's become Batgirl again. I find nothing objectionable about the comic - which isn't a guarantee with Krul - and I've always enjoyed Dan Jurgens clean superhero style, but it's all rather ordinary. I'm intrigued by Green Arrow operating on the international stage (here in Europe), but the bunch of super-powered villains introduced evoke something out of X-Men, where characters are basically just their powers (drug-induced rather than genetic). I certainly don't want the new DCU to get mired in the mud of past continuity, foregoing new adversaries in favor of yet another re-invention(TM), but no one sticks out here, giving the whole thing the feeling of a generic archer superhero book you might have seen from Malibu, Image or Dark Horse in the early 90s.
Don't call it a reboot: I don't know how much of past GA continuity has been wiped, mostly because I wasn't reading the previous series, but the status quo has certainly changed.
Upgrade? Like I said, can't be sure. The art one the previous series wasn't bad either, so Even Steven, I guess.
Will read? I might check out a few more issues, but unless it shows a willingness to be more than standard superhero fare, I'm gonna get off the bus pretty early.
Recommended? The Smallville look might attract new media-conscious readers, but I see nothing spectacular enough to hook them for good. Not one to hand out for free in school yards to get them while they're young.
Hawk & Dove #1I feel bad for writer Sterling Gates. I liked his Supergirl work, and here his script shows promise, but he's been saddled with Rob Liefeld whose art has little redeeming value. Somehow, the opening action sequence manages to be dynamic, perhaps in part because colorist Matt Yackey has attempted to give the often blank backgrounds some depth. The sequence, while exciting, doesn't bear close (or even mid-distance) scrutiny, and the talking heads in the back half of the book are even weaker. Gates laces in some soap opera threads, like a connection between Dove and her predecessor and Hawk's father, but we don't really get to the villain in the first issue. Is it me or have the New DC 52 to date done a poor job of introducing their respective threats? Darkseid is behind the scenes in Justice League. The JLI and Hawk&Dove fight minions controlled by God knows who. There are a number of last page antagonists (here and in JLI, and the Dollmaker, and Midnighter, and even Superman himself). Can't say there's much of a "done-in-one" approach at the New DC.
Don't call it a reboot: Looks like maybe Dawn has only recently been turned into Dove, nullifying the previous H&D series, but it's hard to say. The action does pick up from Brightest Day, with Dove and Deadman as lovers. Too bad, because Boston Brand's appearance in the book muddles the basic premise and makes it harder for non-comics fans to get into it.
Upgrade? No. I wasn't really reading Birds of Prey where H&D were appearing, but you won't get me to say being drawn by Liefeld is anything but a downgrade.
Will read? Keeping an eye on it because of professional curiosity, but ultimately waiting for Liefeld to get behind on his art and leave the book in better hands.
Recommended? I just can't. I wish nothing but the best for Sterling Gates, but I can't show a Liefeld comic to someone except to laugh at it, and that's not gonna grow the comics fan base.
Men of War #1The first true "genre book" on tap, Men of War could conceivably attract the attention of soldiers here and abroad, an important segment of the fan base since WWII. The main story, by Ivan Brandon and Tom Derenick follows the exploits of Sgt. Rock's grandson, Joseph Rock, on the cusp of becoming a Sergent himself. He's hard and nails and doesn't want the leadership position he's a natural for. Instead of any specific war, this Rock serves in a special ops unit and could conceivably see action all over the world. To tell you the truth, I was a little ambivalent after the first issue. I found the action a little confusing and didn't care for the few characters Brandon gave a sort of personality to. I'm also quite ambivalent about unknown superhumans crashing this military story. The role of the soldier in a superhero world definitely has potential, but it gets us away from the genre and betrays the promise of true variety in the line. The book loses even more points with its Navy SEALS back-up by Jonathan Vankin and Phil Winslade, the first third of a story riddled with more clichés than bullet holes, with characters that are essentially there only for info-dumps and slinging military jargon around. Waste of a good artist, really.
Don't call it a reboot: It's not.
Upgrade? The only war comics of recent years have been at Vertigo, and they've mostly been good (I'm including DMZ in the mix). Men of War doesn't reach
Will read? I'm curious as to how they plan to integrate the military into superheroics, but I'm afraid I probably won't stick around for long.
Recommended? Superheroes/military comics is NOT chocolate/peanut butter, at least not in this case. Fans of either will find the book wanting.
O.M.A.C. #1
Keith Giffen is the worthy inheritor of Jack Kirby's artistic tradition, but in OMAC he really goes for the tribute (just look at characters' mouths, for example) without losing his own style. It's not just the art or high-action sensibility, but Giffen and DiDio also draft in Cadmus and its cast of characters, adding build-a-friends to the usual DNAliens, merging the future of the original OMAC series with present-day DCU trappings. OMAC isn't Buddy Blank, but Kevin Koh, a man turned into a nearly-mindless One Man Army Corps by the orbiting Brother Eye (who reads like Skeets gone bad). He'll take your life over, but also take messages from your girlfriend. Yeah, it's got the kind of humor Giffen is known for. Is DiDio mostly scripting? In any case, a fine collaboration, this weird, action-packed SF story. I WILL have to get used to OMAC's tropical fish fin, which I currently HATE. I'm actually hoping OMAC's transformations will vary, as will the amount of control Kevin will have over the "creature".
Don't call it a reboot: Cadmus now has an above-ground presence, and elements from OMAC's world are 'ported in as well.
Upgrade? Considering the last OMAC iteration was the overused, sleeper agents built by Batman (of all people), yes, this is a massive upgrade of the concept.
Will read? I wasn't particularly enthusiastic when it was announced, but call me a convert!
Recommended? I do recommend it, though I fear it may be too strange for the casual reader, both in art and story. Might be a good one to hand over to a fan of Kirby's who's dropped out of comics since the 70s though. An open-minded SF fan would also enjoy the concepts.
Static Shock #1Cards on table here - I've never read any Static comics or even seen the cartoon show. So I'm coming to this as fresh as the "new readers" DC wants to attract. Static seems to be the New DCU's answer to Spider-Man, a teen hero with electrical powers and cutting edge technology, quick with the humorous banter, and the potential for personal problems. He's got a dad who won't let him get his license, sisters who pick on him, and a job at a hardware store where everyone thinks he's a juvenile delinquent being given a second chance (a neat "secret identity" thing, what with his secret HQ under that very store). Another hero removed from a fictional city, Static has left Dakota behind for New York. His mentor is Milestone Comics' first hero, Hardware, who acts as a combination of Alfred, the movie Lucius Fox, and Oracle, all from a distance. Hardware is the only Milestone comic I read for any length of time, so I'm glad to see him here. Writers Scott McDaniel and John Rozum pack a lot into the issue, including connections to STAR Labs and a number of villains with a hidden agenda, and McDaniel's art is correspondingly more detailed (the work of his inkers?), though his rough cartoonishness still prevails. Overall, a fun and likable effort, the science-based powers coming off as sort of educational in a Flash Fact way.
Don't call it a reboot: Milestone experts may be able to tell.
Upgrade? Static has appeared in the Teen Titans since Milestone was imported, but those comics had nothing but a bad reputation. I'm gonna say getting a solo series trumps that.
Will read? Count me in for the foreseeable future.
Recommended? I can safely recommend this book for readers looking for fairly light-hearted teen adventure, in particular if they liked the animated series or, indeed, if they're Spider-Man fans. The big question for me will be whether the line can support both Static Shock and Blue Beetle, which share many similarities.
Of these seven series, there are two I find very exciting, two I find more than competent, and three I wouldn't recommend. +4 series I like better than Justice League #1, for a total of 10, if you're counting. But what did YOU think? Especially if you're not usually a comic book reader (off-chance?).
Though I'd seen Freeze in an issue of Who's Who, it was really Paul Dini who put him on the map in the award-winning episode, "Heart of Ice". Suddenly, he's being played by Arnold in a major motion sickness picture, and showing up in all the video games. Still, even after his accession to the A-list, he was never as soulful, sympathetic or (I'm gonna say it) cool as he was in the Batman animated series.
I can't believe it took that long to make Brainiac a real part of the Superman legend, and had it happened earlier, we might actually have seen him in a Superman film pinch-hitting for Luthor. A Kryptonian computer intelligence, this Brainiac has a vested interest in Superman (in a sense, he's a little like the Eradicator). He plays a role in dismissing Jor-El's findings while secretly working to escape from the doomed planet, makes his way to Earth, absorbing the knowledge of every world he encounters, and tries to take over the world. Not the alien invader, nor the robotic skeleton, nor the circus psychic, nor the various combinations of these, but a true legacy character that is indivisible from his continuity's Superman.
Doing away with the terrible codename was the first good decision the makers of Teen Titans made for the character, but it only went up from there. From lame mercenary assassin to criminal mastermind, Slade is at once the mystery man behind most of the bad things that happen, a hand-to-hand fighter on par with Robin, a Dr. Doom-type who sometimes turned out to be a robot double, and eventually, a man who sold his soul to the devil for even more power. I HATE Deathstroke and I LOVE Slade. That says something about the power of the Titans cartoon show.
Granted, the various versions of the Question in the comics are already pretty good - Ditko's original mystery man, O'Neil and Cowan's conflicted zen Buddhist, you might even count Rorschach in there - however, the Question as a conspiracy nut is a character I wish they'd introduced in the comics. Not only are his theories a real hoot, but his ability to see connections where he shouldn't is an interesting and seldom seen wrinkle for superhero books. And then there's the weird romantic relationship with the Huntress. He would be awesome even without Jeffrey Combs' voice.
I know fan wisdom would have me name Brave and the Bold's Aquaman in this slot, but I dare say, as fun as the series' Aquaman is, he's not necessarily "way better than he ever was in the comics" (I've been a big fan of several incarnations, in fact). For my money, I've got to give it to Green Arrow, a character that hasn't had a good story arc in decades. Gone are the hypocritical politics, the bad relationships and the (ugh) killer arrows. They've regressed Oliver Queen to his Kirby days (before the beard) when he was basically a Batman rip-off, and used that to fuel a healthy competition between the two characters. He's the cocksure one in green.
