This month's relaunch of the DC Comics universe with 52 new #1 issues has the entire comics world buzzing, and the PW Comics World staff thought it would be interesting to play along and review all 52 issues as they come out. Here's the first 14. Books were randomly assigned and review lengths adhere to PW's general standards. Let us know what you think in the comments file. [Here are links to reviews for Week 2 and Week 3 and and Week 4.]
Action Comics by Grant Morrison and Rags Morales
Action Comics #1 introduces Clark Kent as a young, hardscrabble newspaper reporter, working hard to make ends meet, competing for news stories with rival reporter Lois Lane. His costume is made entirely out of odds and ends that must have been sitting at the back of his closet. So far, so good. Making Clark Kent a little downtrodden works well. But the jeans / cape / sneakers of his early costume are the least of his changes--this Superman has an entirely different personality. From quite literally the very first page, he's a nasty little thug, glorying in his own strength, self-righteousness and anger. True, Superman saves a subway train full of passengers and a large number of squatters in an abandoned building, but he also threatens a group of police officers in an act of pointless grandstanding. The comic takes place several years in the past, so he has time to mature into a wiser, gentler Superman, but for now there's little sign of it. Lex Luthor's worries have suddenly become vastly more sympathetic. Despite his extreme methods, when he compares Superman to invasive species like the cane toad or the brown tree snake, you have to wonder if the man has a point. People who wanted something new and different out of DC's New 52 and Grant Morrison have certainly gotten it. Superman is a bully. Hurrah? – KF
Animal Man by Jeff Lemire and Travel Foreman
Animal Man #1 is a fairly simple story, told in a typically trippy way for the title. Buddy Baker is an animal rights advocate, an actor and a semi-retired superhero who can take on the abilities of various animals, facts which the reader learns fairly painlessly on the first page in the form of a fake celebrity profile. A happily married family man, Buddy zooms off from dinner to help stop a hostage situation at the local hospital with his wife's blessing - she thinks he needs to get out more. Of course, with a book originally created by Grant Morrison and nurtured in Vertigo, it's never that simple. Animal Man starts bleeding heavily from his eyes for no apparent reason after a fairly simple use of his powers, and he's haunted by acid-like visions of being a disembodied nervous system chased by strange zombie animals. And then Buddy discovers that one of his young children has a disturbing new superpower... The book works perfectly as a jumping on point for new readers unfamiliar with the character and the series, and the team of writer Jeff Lemire and penciller Travel Foreman walk the difficult tightrope between too normal and incomprehensibly weird with an easy grace. – KF
Batgirl: Shattered by Gail Simone and Ardian Syaf
Barbara Gordon is back as Batgirl after a long interlude as the paraplegic Oracle—she was shot in the spine by the Joker—one of the more controversial continuity changes brought about by the New 52 relaunch. Gordon is now back on her feet and fighting crime, in this instance, a gang of serial killers as prelude to dealing with an even more ominous villain called Mirror, who is methodically killing a list of specific people for reasons we’ll find out after buying a few more issues. Written by Gail Simone with pencils by Ardian Syaf and inks by Vicente Cifuentes, Batgirl is action-packed and Gordon swings into action from the first page, sending a gang of serial killers off to both the jail and the hospital. She remains haunted by the Joker’s shooting, but in this new incarnation of Batgirl she recovered and regained her ability to walk. She’s moved out of her dad’s home—that’s Police Commissioner Gordon, if you didn’t know—and she’s got a roommate (she’s a painter and a young political activist). But it isn’t long before the deadly Mirror shows up raising hell and raising questions about just what he’s after. The artwork is okay though conventional, while Simone’s script tries to tie up of the end of the previous Barbara Gordon/Oracle storyline and setup up the new Batgirl. Her formula: murderous villains, blood splattering violence and high flying superheroics mixed with single-white-female bonding (“sorry roomie,” says her new friend embracing her, “I’m a hugger”), plus a cliffhanger ending to the first issue that offers a nifty seque into the new world of Barbara Gordon and Batgirl. – CR
Batwing by Judd Winick and Ben Oliver
Batwing #1 is an actually new comic from the New DC. David Zavimbe, a desk-bound police officer in the fictional city of Tinasha in the Democratic Republic of Congo, is also secretly Batwing, a Bat-inspired vigilante superhero. Cleaning up a city so violent and desperately corrupt with almost no support system makes the average American superhero's life look like a walk in the park. Although he was introduced in Grant Morrison's Batman Incorporated and Batman gave him the computers and high tech costume that make his work possible, Batwing is very much his own man, with his own issues and drives beyond Bruce's agenda. Issue 1 is set early in Zavimbe's heroic career, and while he's eager to make a difference, he wonders if his silver suit with bat wings can really work on hard-bitten Congolese criminals. Meanwhile, during the day at the police precinct, he seethes with frustration as even the best of his colleagues shrug at corruption and scorn him as a sheltered desk jockey. When the cliffhanger ending arrives, you actually want to know what happens next. There's vast potential in taking superheroes out of their American context and throwing them into another continent and country, and Winick's take on this has gotten off to a strong start. – KF
Detective Comics by Tony Salvador Daniel
Detective Comics, the DC monthly that launched Batman in 1937, returns as a renumbered issue #1 with Batman facing off against—who else?—the Joker. Spooky, homicidal and creepily amusing, the Joker has emerged as probably one of the scariest psychopaths in comics. His gradual transformation from oddball petty thief and crackpot mobster to soil-your-pants scary serial-killer seems to have begun in Frank Miller’s Dark Knight Returns and Alan Moore’s The Killing Joke, reaching its apotheosis in both the film the Dark Knight and Brian Azzarello’s brilliant dystopian and disturbingly funny graphic novel, Joker, with art by Lee Bermejo. This is the Joker as the ultimate insane and heartless mass-murderer; a monster with a knack for the most twisted and macabre wisecracks in comics. In this new issue, Batman interrupts the fiend in the midst slaughtering some equally weird dude with a meat cleaver. The Joker escapes when Batman is distracted by a young girl who hid while the Joker was carving up her uncle. This story owes much in atmosphere and drawing style to Azzarello and Bermejo—the art is beyond noir, a crude and oppressively dark exercise in gothic melancholia—though Batman’s anatomy can be a little shaky, but no matter. This first issue comes with an ending meant to disgust—yes, it’s just that gory—but it does make the reader a bit desperate to know what happens next. Writer and illustrator Tony Salvador Daniel has set up a horrific scenario to kick off the new Detective Comics—nothing like a little blood and guts to get Batman fans excited.—CR
Green Arrow by J.T. Krul and Dan Jurgens
In Green Arrow #1, Oliver Queen is the head of Q-Core, the tech division of his family's company Queen Industries, and despite his secret life, runs it in an extremely hands on way, taking meetings by phone as he chases criminals. Referred to as a "visionary" by his colleagues, all the Q-Phones and Q-Pads seem to imply he's meant to be a young Steve Jobs as a superhero. As of the first issue, Queen's setup is a secret headquarters hidden in his office and two helpers at his side: Naomi, who mans his computers as mission control and Jax, his tech guru both in and out of the costume. To be frank, he feels a bit like an Iron Man knockoff. Dan Jurgens and George Perez's art is as expressive and classic as ever, with strong composition and marvelous clean lines - J.T. Krul, the writer, will have to work hard to keep up with them. So far Green Arrow's a bit generic, but the formula is popular for a reason - it works well enough. Aside from being a cocky archer who likes green, this Oliver Queen so far has little in common with previous version of Green Arrow, but the new incarnation is likeable and the book has room to grow. – KF
Hawk & Dove by Sterling Gates and Rob Liefeld
Hank Hall is a moody college near-dropout with the powers of the god of war -- super strength agility and healing factor. He’s Hawk. Dawn Granger is dating a dead man, and has the powers of compassion and peacemaking -- but she’s also super strong and can fly. She’s Dove. Together they fight crime! Except that Hawk is sad over losing his first partner, his brother Don, and Dove is keeping a secret about how she got her powers. This is a superhero book, drawn by superhero artist Rob Liefeld, meaning everyone has a minimum of 48 teeth. The story consists of a first half of relentless, if unmotivated, action, and a second half of angsting and pouting. It’s pretty thin stuff, without much suggestion of a worldview or gimmick other than the team-up itself. If I was 11 years old and stuck in the back of a car on a six hour ride to my grandmother’s house, I would read it over and over again. Otherwise, I would not pick it up again. Since I’m not stuck in a car, my reaction is the latter. – HM
Justice League by Geoff Johns and Jim Lee
Justice League #1 is, for such an important comic, a disappointment. A slow, muddled morass of a book, it feels like the first half of a first issue, not the entire comic, since it leaves readers hanging without bothering to give them a story in the first place. Johns is usually a talented writer, which makes this even more of a let down. It opens as Batman is pursued by a rifle wielding S.W.A.T. team, then abruptly switches to Batman fighting with a strange, swaddled alien being that belches fire, then Green Lantern shows up and the firefight becomes a giant free for all. Batman and Green Lantern are both curiously unmoved by the flame-belching alien, and instead spend several pages insulting each other. Later they decide to capture and question Superman on the thinnest of pretexts, which goes as well as you might expect. Though intended to bring in new readers who only know who Batman is, the comic makes even less sense if you don't know DC trivia. Several pages of a young Victor Stone playing football for no apparent reason, and mentions of Darkseid and a Mother Box are interesting if you know who or what they are, but by definition, the target audience of new fans doesn't. Nothing is resolved and nothing is explained, not even why the reader should care what happens next. – KF
Justice League International by Dan Jurgens and Aaron Lopresti
Any series starring Booster Gold, DC’s notorious self-promoter and superhero corporate spokesperson, is going to be played at least partly for laughs. The first issue of JLI does offer a chuckle or two but not much more than that. JLI is something of a Justice League of America JV, populated by active if not overly exciting characters such as Vixen, the African princess who can mimic the powers of animals, and Beatriz Bonilla Da Costa, aka Fire, who turns into a greenish female Human Torch. There’s also the Brit super heroine Godiva (“Sod off, Bats,” she says, when Batman gets a bit too bossy) and August General in Iron, a former Chinese government official with super strength and bad English syntax, whose skin has become a metallic bio-material—easily the weirdest superhero of the bunch. The JLI lineup is so comic and D-league that auxiliary Green Lantern Guy Gardner—generally a lout and a loudmouth in the DCU—refuses to be part of any team that includes Booster Gold. “I do NOT take orders from a pitchman for adult diapers,” says Gardner as he stalks out of the JLI meeting. The JLA’s Batman shows up, acting as a kind of super-chaperone with clenched teeth, as the group heads off to rescue a U.N. research team that vanished in a desolate jungle wilderness. JLI is an odd duck of a comic book, essentially a superhero parody that would like to also be a real superhero adventure yarn. Good luck on that. Written by Dan Jurgens with pencils by Aaron Lopresti and inking by Travis Lanham, JLI offers mostly obscure heroes in a generic adventure that even the writers don’t seem to take very seriously. “Why should I waste time with these losers, while you and Superman play in the majors,” Gardner says to Batman. He’s got a point. – CR
Men of War by Ivan Brandon and Matt Wilson with Jonathan Vankin and Phil Winslade
DC’s New 52 wouldn’t be complete without a war series, in this case Men of War, a reprise of Joe Kubert’s iconic World War II comic book and hero, Sgt. Rock, but with a twist. Men of War #1 stars Corporal Rock, grandson of the great Sgt. Frank Rock, an enlisted man stationed in what appears to be Iraq, but a guy with an attitude problem. The new Rock is a problem solder who is, nevertheless, universally admired by officers and soldiers alike. Corporal Rock has a history of ignoring orders, but it always leads to big tactical victories for his units. In other words he’s much better soldier than his superiors. Despite his bad attitude, Rock has been recruited to be a member of secret high-risk commando mission to rescue a Senator kidnapped while on a mission to negotiate a ceasefire in hostile territory. Written by Ivan Brandon with art by Matt Wilson, Men of War has a tough act to follow and Brandon has actually created a hybrid war/superhero comic—the commandos encounter a mysterious and all-powerful individual they hadn’t anticipated. Rock is an engaging character and it will be interesting to see the series develop. The artwork is serviceable; great for grimacing and anguished faces but not very dynamic when depicting combat, an obvious problem in a war comic. The backup story, “Navy Seals: Human Shields” (written by Jonathan Vankin with art by Phil Winslade) is a story about the bad things that can happen on patrol and both the story and art are vivid and promising. – CR
O.M.A.C. by Dan DiDio, Keith Giffen and Scott Koblish
Have you ever heard of Jack Kirby? DiDio, Giffen and Koblish have! OMAC was originally created as one of Kirby’s marvelously mondo bizarro Fourth World books—and the creative team devotes itself to channeling Kirby’s blocky action and storytelling, right down into using a six panel grid as the building block for each page—verboten in today’s comics storytelling but powerful as a nostalgia gimmick. The story involves OMAC breaking into Cadmus Industries, a medtech research facility that holds an incredible secret in his basement: a sinister cartel called The Cadmus Project, staffed by various Kirby grotesques. OMAC smashes and bashes his way through ever tougher foes, accompanied by speed lines and old school sound effects. The end of the issue reveals that he’s going to have a lot of problems in issue 2 though— both because he has a civilian identity and because he’s being controlled by yet another high-tech entity, this one orbiting in a satellite. While the story is mostly a lot of fighting, this first issue manages to channel the Kirby method of fighting as drama, and it’s actually quite a bit of fun in a loopy, feverish way. – HM
Stormwatch by Paul Cornell and Miguel Sepulveda
Cornell has a big mantle to fill here—it was the Warren Ellis universe of grim superbullies in The Authority and Stormwatch that kicked off not only a grim, dystopian era of superheroes, but an era of decompression and widescreen comics. Stormwatch mops up what’s left of the oft rebooted Wildstorm characters and...reboots them. With some new characters and some unwanted refugees from the regular DCU like Martian Manhunter, who fits right in with this bunch of oddballs. We’re back to the widescreen, with a solar-system spanning tale of cosmic horns, giant Himalayan artifacts and a moon that grows claws to attack the earth. Meanwhile, back on earth, egotistical team leader Jack Hawksmoor, who can communicate with cities, is trying to recruit Apollo, a reluctant superhuman who rivals Superman for raw strength. This getting the team together story is hampered by having way too much team, and not knowing whether to write for the people who have read Stormwatch before, or total newbs. Sepulveda’s art—aided by colorist Allan Passalaqua—is comfortable with both the cosmic and the dramatic moments—but the overabundance of story doesn’t allow much room for characterization and the result is more mind numbing than mind bending. Maybe if this book slows down the pace a bit, I’ll enjoy it more. – HM
Static Shock by Scott McDaniel and John Rozum
Co-created by the late Dwayne McDuffie for the pioneering black comics line of Milestone, Static —teenage genius Virgil Hawkins—returns in a story that pairs him with Hardware, another Milestone/McDuffie creation. A hip hop influenced hero with dreads, Static can control static electricity and while he’s at it, he’s got a slick polygonal board that he uses to fly/surf around New York City like he’s riding a wave or a snow covered half-pipe. Static encounters a big ball of energy careering through Manhattan—apparently it’s a runaway plasma protection suit (whatever that is) with a pilot inside—crashing into buildings, so he brings it down with a bit of daring and a lot of pseudo-science. Before he can find out what's up, a long range sniper shoots the pilot dead. A gang of stylish mutants (including the leader, literally a fishheaded dude called Piranha) have been watching Static, who seems to have stumbled into a larger criminal plot. Set in New York City and starring a teenage superhero with problems as well as a mouthful of snappy comebacks, Static Shock seems modeled after the Marvel comics this reviewer read as a kid in the 1960s. Written by Scott McDaniel and John Rozum and penciled by McDaniel, Static has a lot going for it. A cool black teenage hero, slick costume and a setting—New York, New York—impressively exploited in the page layouts and scenes. The art is dynamic and fun in a story that ends with Static being ambushed by an unknown enemy. There’s more to come and I’m looking forward to checking it out. – CR
Swamp Thing by Scott Snyder and Yanick Paquette
Swamp Thing is one of DC’s most iconic characters, a compassionate plant elemental who fights for the balance of nature. But here the spotlight is on the man who once was Swamp Thing, Dr. Alec Holland. The story opens with a plague hitting Metropolis—dead birds falling from the skies, dead fish choking the sea. Superman is called on to contact Dr. Holland, whose bio-restorative formula might hold the key to ending the plague. But Holland has problems of his own: he now has the memories of being Swamp Thing, when he never really was Swamp Thing. It isn’t quite made clear how you can have memories of things you never did when you know you didn’t do them, but that is fodder for future issues. This first issue is a great reintroduction of the character, with fantastic art by Paquette. Not so much the fantastic spectacle—although that works— but just subtle expressions that helps bring Snyder’s evocative dialogue to life. The second half of the issue involves a dinosaur dig in Arizona that has gone horrifically wrong, and the crew at the dig meets a rather startling fate and a new foe is unleashed. This new Swamp Thing isn’t a groundbreaking comic, but it’s a thoughtful, well-executed new take on a great character. – HM
