Men Of War #1 – Why On Earth Is This Being Published?
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No, seriously. This is what it says it is. This is a comic about men of war, or more specifically soldiers. With guns. Shooting people. Foreign people. Specifically, middle-eastern foreign people, at least in the second story. If a someone with powers didn’t show up halfway through the first story, I’d be skeptical as to whether this took place in the DC Universe at all.
It just doesn’t seem to make a lot of sense, in-story or out. War isn’t something that comics are usually about, at least not involving regular humans. We’ve seen things like the Civil War, we’ve had books like Thunderbolts, X-Force, Suicide Squad, there are mercenaries everywhere… It stands to reason that a force of metahumans of dubious morality could be raised fairly easily. And while the thought of how a group of humans could successfully combat a metahuman is an interesting concept, this doesn’t seem to be where this is going.
Justice League International #1 – Always To Be Complaining, You Are. Sit Down And Enjoy Ride!
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I’m not really sure what to think about this one right now, to be honest. I know I bitched at length about Dan Jurgens in my Green Arrow review, but he’s proving to be a much better writer than an artist, and Aaron Lopresti is a solid if not spectacular artist. Come to think of it, I’m pretty sure I’ve seen better from Lopresti, but that could just be the inker. So, this isn’t bad, really. I’m just not sure that it’s good, either.
In case you’re unfamiliar with the concept, the Justice League International (or this version of it, anyway) is a team separate from the typical big-name Justice League under some form of control by the United Nations. Its membership currently consists of Booster Gold, Ice, Vixen, Fire, Rocket Red, August General In Iron, Guy Gardner, Godiva, and apparently Batman.
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Hawk & Dove #1 – To Me, You Smell Like DINNER. You Smell Like… HAWK & DOVE!
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Let me start this off with a request: Please don’t buy this issue. There should be a lightboxable cover immediately to the left of these words, but on the off chance that you’re blind (though how that would work…) this comic was drawn by Rob Liefeld. There is absolutely no way I can express the effect Rob Liefeld has had on the industry without saying things that have been said many, many times before. It wouldn’t be the slightest bit novel or interesting.
He has been working in comics for something like 20 years. Trust me, it’s all been said. Don’t believe me? Go here for a five-year-old four-page-long critique of everything wrong with Rob Liefeld. You should, if you haven’t. It’s an education. The only pertinent observation I have to add is… It’s BEEN 20 years. How in the hell is he still getting work? It’s not like there’s a shortage of artists looking to break into the industry, and I’m not just basing that on an assumption.
Green Arrow #1 – The Beard That Made The Man
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Holy crap, how in god’s name did they screw this one up so badly? This one’s so horrible that it doesn’t even get a proper review, just an itemized list:
Detective Comics #1 – On This Week’s CSI Gotham…
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At the risk of sounding overly self-aggrandizing, I think I’ve been in a pretty good position to offer my opinion on this relaunch. I grew up liking superheroes, reading some comics but mostly being exposed to them through other media like cartoons and video games, and have since followed comics closely, as a reader and sometimes as a writer, for most of the last five years.
In all this time, though, I’ve had very little exposure to DC. I enjoyed the various Batman shows of the 90s, especially Batman Beyond, and had read the occasional TPB/GN from the library (Yes, libraries have comics these days. I’ve even seen some with single issues. Isn’t that awesome?), but that’s about it. I was interested in taking this on because I can offer the perspective of someone new to these series and characters, while still knowing the ins and outs of the industry.
Batwing #1 – Do They Even Have Bats In Africa?
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Okay, seriously, who the hell thought this was a good idea? Was there some mass outcry that I missed for more negroid superheroes? Was the point of the New 52 really to introduce more diversity, which is of course editorspeke for ‘shoehorn in a new token character’? I touched on this in my Batgirl review: This is simply not the way to go about appealing to wider audiences. What is, is writing good stories.
Batgirl #1 – Now With Less Profanity!
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I was talking to my mother about the new 52 the other day (yes, I am that asshole who talks about major events in comics to people who have next to no interest in them, deal with it) and she started asking questions about the origins of the characters in the DC universe. She knows more or less what Marvel consists of, and that it’s all Stan Lee’s brainchild, and was trying to figure out if he had any counterpart in DC. After a few quickly wiki’d and ultimately unsatisfactory answers (Siegel and Shuster, Julius Schwartz, etc) she started to ask if there were any women writing comics and creating characters.
So to anyone else who was wondering? Yeah. There are. Right here.
Animal Man #1 – Rot In The Red
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This book is simply excellent. I’ve been holding off on this review for a bit, trying to think of what I could actually say, to find some interesting facet of it to talk about for a few paragraphs, but I’ve really got nothing. This was the first New 52 book I read, and everything since has been a disappointment. It was powerful enough to make me search out both earlier Animal Man issues and other things Jeff Lemire has written, none of which have measured up.
Read the book. Trust me on this one.
Action Comics #1 – Captured By A Speeding Bullet-Train!
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You know what the best thing about this book is? There’s no Kryptonite. It’s just a smaller symptom of a much greater change, but it’s one I appreciate a lot. You see, in the past, all Lex Luthor or… or… does Superman even have villains other than Lex Luthor? I vaguely remember some robot powered by Kryptonite, or something? Regardless, all Lex Luthor and co. would have to do is whip out that chunk of glowing green moonrock and instantly solve all their problems. How they expected a character invincible in all situations except when you press his magic off-button–which everyone has, and apparently comes in every color of the rainbow–to have any tension or believability is beyond me, but it doesn’t matter now. Kryptonite, like the Superman of yore, is gone.
It’s time for something with a little more Action.
Justice League #1 – Now With More Black People!
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I have no idea if anyone’s still paying attention to this site or knows who I am, but fuck it, the gauntlet has been thrown down and thus reviews you shall have. For those of you still with us…
Welcome to the beginning of a new era!
In case you’ve been living under a rock for the last couple of months (and really, you’d have to be to miss this), the DC universe is starting over from scratch! You no longer need to know anything about the years of convoluted critically infinite multiversal codswallop that has gone on for the past five or six decades! Everything you need to know is in these 52 #1 issues!
Well, sort of.
And by sort of I mean not at all.
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