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DC New 52 Review: Detective Comics #1

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DC has gone all-in on Batman in their line-wide relaunch, with a total of eleven Bat books. Add to that Batman in Justice League and Harley Quinn in Suicide Squad and you’ve got thirteen books of bat-adjacent characters.

That makes Batstuff fully a fourth of DC’s entire schedule of relaunch!

Of course, right now Batman is bigger business than ever before, coming off of a critical and box office smash movie and a high-selling and acclaimed comic run.

Can DC continue the magic? And, on a more personal note, can they bring me to care about a hero I’ve always been cold to?

Detective Comics #1

Script & pencils by Tony Daniel, inks by Ryan Winn

Rating: 4 of 5 – Excellent

In a line: “This is a violation of my civil rights. A man should be able to slaughter in peace.”

140char review: Detective Comics #1, a keen, brutal reintro to Batman/Joker dynamic w/several twists (not just of the knife). Easily tracks from Dark Knight

Plot & Script

If I had any fear that the opening issue of DC’s namesake book wasn’t going to live up to its “Detective” moniker, it was quickly quelled. Tony Daniels’ plot has each player running their own game while they play in others’ – the Commissioner in Batman’s, the police in Joker’s, and Joker in that of a mysterious attacker and benefactor.

The result is a book where nothing happening is something.

Yes, we get fight scenes and explosions, but they’re almost beside the point. The point is following each player as they manipulate the others to the last page, and then going back to the beginning to follow them again on re-read.

If there’s one dead part of the narrative it’s a page spent with Dr, Arkham, who is one-note in his “he’s sick” diagnosis of Joker. Maybe that’s the point? I’m admittedly not a Bat-comics fan, so I’m not sure.

What is surprisingly not one-note is the police’s pursuit of Batman. It was annoying in Justice League, but here it feels in context. I’m sure it’s not entirely a coincidence that this is where we left Batman in the last movie.

Artwork

Tony Daniel’s art makes my whole body tense.

You know how some artists over-exentuate all of a characters’ muscles? Daniel is all about skin. All the little wrinkles and crevices around a smile or a grimace.

Every shot of Joker is downright unsettling, from the first one of blood trickling out of his nose to the disturbing final panel. Daniel sketches the traditional tall, skinny-headed Joker with the lithe body of a dancer, the face of your drunken great-aunt, a vicious hook of a nose.

Batman is big, in a reinforced-armor version of his classic blue and grey. His bulk dominates panels, and makes his fight with Joker look alarmingly one-sided (it isn’t).

Panels take time to drag your eyes across. Gotham’s dilapidated buidlings inhabit the background of the story in intricate detail.

I’m typically put off by disembodied heads on comic covers as a lazy way to squeeze in another character, but … well, it works in the context of this issue in multiple ways. I’m not saying the Joker gets beheaded or anything. Just read it.

Note that the cover cynically inserts “Batman” above the Detective Comics title. Also, in my typical graphic design snobbery, I must note that Batman’s italic white on gray-with-bat-symbol narration boxes make my eyes glaze over. They take way too much effort to read.

CK Says: Buy it!

Detective Comics re-debut is a visceral thrill that forces you to linger on every panel.

For new fans, this issue tracks almost perfectly from the closing frames of Nolan’s The Dark Knight, wisely tucking away any dissonance in the Batman universe for other titles to handle. As with Dark Knight, the Joker is the star of this issue, and every panel of his pale white form is both rewarding and nauseating.

Batman himself is relatively flat here – but this isn’t a book about character revelations – it’s Detective Comics, and it lives up to that name entirely.

Given how quickly the ending will send you back to page one, I have high hopes that the remainder of the arc will include several more circuitous turns.

DC New 52 Review: Stormwatch #1

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I was a major Image Comics fan in the 90s, and not just for the hyper-kinetic art of departed Marvel artists like Jim Lee. I loved Image because it frequently broke free of typical save-the-world tropes to explore superheroes as a separate society running in parallel to every day life.

Wildstorm Productions was Jim Lee’s imprint at Image, and it was home to every one of my favorite titles and stories. In 1999 Lee allowed DC to acquire the rights to the company so he could focus less on administration and more on creating. Twelve years later, Lee is DC’s co-publisher and penciling their flagship book.

As for the Wildstorm universe, it’s very much alive in DC’s reboot with Stormwatch and solo titles for WildCATs mainstays Grifter and Voodoo –  and they’re all more integrated with DC’s continuity than ever before.

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DC Comics Stormwatch #1, released September 7, 2011.

Stormwatch #1

Written by Paul Cornell, art by Miguel Sepulveda

Rating: 3.5 of 5 – Great

In a line: “Do we look like ‘super-heroes’? They’re amateurs. We’re the professionals.”

140 char review: Stormwatch #1: Almost too many chars to keep track, but Cornell teases mysteries w/o sacrificing exposition. Love the psychedelic overlays!

Plot & Script

Paul Cornell successfully juggles a debut issue featuring a team of seven extra-powered beings, their super-powered quarry, a mysterious assailant, an extra-dimensional space station, a giant Himaylayan cornucopia, a claw in the moon, and one very giant eyeball with tentacles. Cornell manages to be amusing without resorting to all-out humor, and expository while only dropping a few utter bricks of dialog to explain the fast-paced plot.

Of three stories across four locations, it’s the team on the ground in Moscow that’s the 4-color thriller. A reticent would-be-hero does all that he can to evade a somewhat forcible recruitment by the Stormwatch away team of Jack Hawksmoor, Projectionist, and Martian Manhunter.

As for Martian Manhunter’s export to this title, his membership in JLA is mentioned offhandedly, but not explained – other than to say he’s a superhero there, but a “warrior” when he’s in Stormwatch. Does that mean he will show up in Justice League’s year one intro arc?

Artwork

I loved the unusual artwork in this issue. It’s not your typical ultra-gloss of a superhero comic.  I’m especially a fan at the unsubtle, realistic face work – particularly Projectionist mugging in false humulity while Martian Manhunter first shows his green face. Many images include psychedelic overlays – I’m not sure if they’re the work of Sepulveda or colorist Allen Passalaqua, but they’re fantastic.

There were only a few minor disappointments. I like the scope of the cover – showing the core cast, rather than a frame from the issue, but it’s unflattering. Not sure if that’s a penciling or a coloring issue, but I feel like it’s ugly compared to the interiors. A few faces look flat, possibly a coloring issue rather than art. Projectionist’s power showing us an on-panel page of YouTube was perhaps a bit too on-the nose. And, a minor quibble, but the bold blue-on-blue lettering of the presence in the moon was a turnoff. It felt more like a computer read-out than a mysterious evolutionary force.

CK Says: Buy it!

Stormwatch feels decidedly alien, and not just because of star Martian Manhunter and a station in hyperspace. The conceit of extra-dimensional heroes in suits who sneer at the the caped set feels more like Ellis’s superb Planetary than the DC I’m used to skimming.

Cornell is an oddball writer, and he didn’t have enough room to stretch out in Marvel’s great (but decidedly terrestrial) Captain Britain & MI:13. This fast-paced amalgamation of erstwhile-Wildstorm and reinvented-DC is a better fit.

Did he put too many balls in the air for a first issue? I say there’s no such thing. This is exactly what I was hoping for from Justice League – a brisk issue with more questions than answers, hints at multiple threats, and enough plot threads that I’m left pouting for a second issue right away.

DC New 52 Review: Action Comics #1

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With DC Comics re-launching its entire slate of books this month, the most-anticipated title after a vaguely-disappointing Jim Lee drawn Justice League is doubtlessly Action Comics, written by Grant Morrison.

Morrison is a hyper-praised comic author who has written everything from indie fare to X-Men. His multi-year shake-up of Batman comics has been to the comic line what Nolan has been to the movie franchise. He’s also an insufferably self-obsessed egoist and drug addict, both as confessed in Supergods, his recent autobiographical look at comic history.

Suffice to say, I run as hot and cold on Morrison as a Katy Perry song. How does his reboot of the longest-running comic title in the world go? Let’s see…

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DC Comics Action Comics #1, released September 7, 2011

Action Comics #1

Written by Grant Morrison, art by Rags Morales & Rick Bryant

Rating: 4.5 of 5 – Remarkable

In a line: “Non-native strains WILL destroy entire ecologies, given the opportunity.”

140char Review: Action Comics #1: Superman spends a vigilante night in Metropolis; Morrison/Morales show more than tell & maybe make Supes interesting again

Plot & Script

Grant Morrison is superb at debut issues, and this is no exception. He presents a constantly moving half hour in the life of Superman that unfurls in near real-time thanks to the engrossing plot of the issue forcing you to linger on each dialog balloon to absorb all of the implications therein.

The constantly intercutting narrative is effective in keeping the anticipation of spending panel time with Superman high. Even though we see him on the first page (a wise move), we then spend several pages away from him, viewing his wake of destruction and the police’s abject dread in dealing with him.

Morrison writes Superman as well-spoken but cocky (“That ain’t Superman”). His powers are kept deliberately ambiguous, though it’s made clear that he cannot fly. As he exerts himself more his dialog gets more clipped – at points becoming an animalistic collection of sniffs and grunts.

Luthor is snide and has little regard for others, but he’s somehow still likeable – as he should be – and as-drawn a dead-ringer for our author.

Superman is portrayed as growing in power as he self-polices everyone from domestic abusers to mob bosses. Is it the right thing to do to turn Superman into a vigilante when we already have Batman? Or, is the only way to start a new decade (or more!) of Superman stories to begin with him as more of an alien than Clark Kent?

We get a handful of supporting characters, sketched in well-enough for the moment. General Lane is a patriot in bed with a snake (Luther). Olsen is a trusting mop-haired kid equally beholden to his new friend Clark and ice-blooded over-achiever Lois.

There is little to nitpick. A sequence with a high-speed train perhaps intercuts too much, warranting a second read. That’s nearly the only gripe, and it’s swept away by the parallelism of Superman catching two bullets on either side of the story – with differing amounts of success.

There isn’t a right answer – just good comic books. And this was one.

Artwork

I’ve never read an issue with Morales art before, but I’m pleased with him here. He can switch from static talking heads to kinetic action in a single panel. His t-shirt wearing, work-booted Superman is delightfully fresh and surprisingly iconic.

Morales effectively toys with Superman’s age throughout the issue. In his first shadow-faced confrontation with police, the heavy lines around his chin make him look middle-aged. A page later his face is gleeful and childlike as he leaps from a balcony, and a smug teen when facing down his would-be jailers.

Meanwhile, as Clark he is half Christpher Reeves, half Harry Potter. All the while, we see the same square-jaw.

It’s the supporting characters who sag. Jimmy and Lois look a bit askew, and background characters can be a bit ragged. Also, a few panels of ambiguous art don’t aid the already-complex train sequence.

CK Says: Buy it!

Action Comics #1 is a thrilling anchor to the clearly all-new continuity of Superman. Anyone hoping for an issue of a big, blue boy scout pushing planets out of their trajectories will be disappointed by this smaller scale exploration of the ambiguities of justice and of being human.

If that sounds like a boring issue, keep in mind that it still involves being faster than a speeding bullet and leaping tall buildings in a single bound. Oh, and a wrecking ball.

No one in the issue makes the case for Superman being human – Morrison is deliberate in having every character refer to him as an animal, alien, or even a thing. However, in our brief time with the bespeckled Clark we’re left to wonder – if it thinks like a man and cares like a man, how can it be an animal? Not for nothing, but Morrison’s book was subtitled “What Masked Vigilantes, Miraculous Mutants, and a Sun God from Smallville Can Teach Us About Being Human.”

Is this issue a modern classic? Hard to say, but Superman scholar Morrison doesn’t waste a single word while Morales keeps the issue full of impact – it never feels decompressed to drag out the story.

X-Men Hardcover & Trade Paperback Review, 9/6 Edition (plus June 2011)

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Being the Amazon addict that I am, I love it when a package arrives every week … which means I’ll be crying myself to sleep every night this week, because Marvel is not releasing any new X-Collections! Totally lame.

What’s a rabid X-Fan to do? Well, for one, surf my Guide to Collecting X-Men to find an older X-Men collection you’ve missed out on. Not only that; I’m taking this down week to recap the collections from June, which was absolutely packed with juicy X-books to buy!

Also, see below for the paltry three books Marvel has out this week, plus the massive list of their June collections.

June Collection of the Month, Hardcover:
Wolverine and Jubilee: Curse of the Mutants Hardcover
Collects Wolverine & Jubilee #1-4 & Jubilee’s first appearance in Uncanny X-Men #244.

CK Says: Buy it! Last September “Curse of the Mutants” put fan-fav X-sidekick Jubilee through the wringer, but didn’t really deal with the ramifications of the big change in her life. This series does just that with a creepy-yet-comedic mystery exploring Jubilee’s new outlook on the world. Writer Kathryn Immonen strikes the best tone on Wolverine/Jubilee interplay since the 90s. I also love her version of Rockslide’s charming hero-worship and crush on the pair, respectively.

While the mystery gets a bit fuzzy in the middle, by that point you’re hooked by Immonen’s writing and Phil Noto’s crisp, Adam Hughes esque artwork – especially the specific, expressive facial features. With Jubilee playing a leading role in this fall’s X-Men re-launch, this is better required reading than the “Curse” schlock that came before it. (Also available for pre-order as a TPB)

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June Collection of the Month, TPB:
X-Men: Second Coming
Collects Second Coming: Prepare, Second Coming #1-2, Uncanny X-Men #523-525; New Mutants #12-14, X-Men Legacy #235-237, X-Force #26-28. 

CK Says: Buy it! While I was initially a little disappointed with the “Second Coming” crossover, there is no denying that it is the most explosive X-Men event of all time, packed with universe-altering developments. The editorial team has worked out the minor pacing issues from Messiah Complex, and here they effectively intercut between multiple fronts to thrilling effect. If you are a major fan of Rogue, Nightcrawler, Cable, or Hope, all get major panel-time here. (Still available from resellers at reasonable prices as a hardcover – which I’d recommend even more)

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What other collections were out in June that I consider Must-Buys? And, which two lonely TPBs merited a skip? Keep reading to find out.  [Read more…] about X-Men Hardcover & Trade Paperback Review, 9/6 Edition (plus June 2011)

DC New 52 Preview: On Sale 9/7

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On the heels of last week’s first chapter of the rebooted origin of Justice League, DC Comics unleashes thirteen brand-new number one titles into stores this week.

As a non-comics reader, why should you care?

The entire point of this venture is to return comics back to something you can pick up casually, just for fun. DC is pairing its relaunch with making its entire line available digitally, including on the iPad. It’s also releasing a significant number of titles not fronted by white guys.

Will DC’s risky play to rejuvenate their readership by re-imagining their entire line of books be successful? Let’s see what this week’s salvo has in store, from my perspective as a relative DC neophyte.

Action Comics #1
Written by Grant Morrison, art by Rags Morales and Rick Bryant

While Batman and company have expanded into a Wolverine-like dominance of the new DC schedule, the big blue boy scout has been relegated to just a pair of solo titles. However, if there is going to be a single solo hit of the new 52, this could be it. Industry shaman Grant Morrison understands what makes superheroes tick, and the art team is solid. I’m in love the cover shot of Superman wearing his own branded t-shirt, a pair of jeans, and work boots. This is a must-read.

What do I think of the rest of this week’s line-up? And, what books are you most looking forward to? [Read more…] about DC New 52 Preview: On Sale 9/7