New DCU: Initial impressions
Sep. 8th, 2011 10:32 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
yendiA few thoughts on this week's New 52 from DC comics, with the note that I haven't read Green Arrow yet. Asterisked titles are five books that are probably worth spending your money on, if you're the sort of person who enjoys spending $3 on comics. Note that books without an asterisk don't necessarily suck (especially if you're a fan of the character), just that they haven't necessarily blown me away. Note also that Detective and Batwing's lack of an asterisk is because they actually suck.
1. If you'd told me that the best book from the first two weeks would have been JLI*, I'd have asked you just how much crack you'd been smoking. But holy crap, this book is solid. It sets just about the perfect tone between serious and silly, it nicely paints Booster Gold as someone who's both competent and self-centered, it's got a good cast, and the Lopresti/Ryan art is also really solid. It also features a great metafictional running gag in which Rocket Red keeps mangling August General in Iron's name to sound like one of my favorite Kanigher/Kubert creations. Basically, this is an example of how to make a book fun without making it slight.
1.5 JLI is also the book featuring the most interesting and entertaining Batman so far. That says more about how bad the "regular" Justice League book and Detective are, to be honest, but Jurgens remembers to give Bats the occasional witty moment to balance the asshole factor. Justice League is just a hot mess of lazy writing combusting into flame, and Detective is just a, well. I don't know what the hell it is. As to the Batman in Batwing, I'm still not sure if he's actually supposed to be a real character or Batwing's hallucination.
2. Animal Man*. It took me two tries to get past the art of the initial few pages, but the story is compelling, existing very nicely in the pre-Vertigo "mature readers" DCU. It's definitely harkens back (both stylistically and thematically) to both Morrison's run and the under-appreciated Tom Veitch run on the book during those days. Unlike most of the stories, there's actually a decent done-in-one adventure that show's Buddy's powers nicely for the new readers, but there's also a nice launch for the ongoing plotline, which looks very, very creepy. In a good way. This might not have been as much fun as JLI, but of the books I've read, it's the one I most want to see issue #2 of right now.
3. Stormwatch*. It's interesting that JLI is basically the New 52's Stormwatch, while Stormwatch is the New 52's Authority. That said, I'm liking Cornell here a lot more than on his Young Avengers run a few years back (my only previous exposure to his comics writing). There are a bunch of new characters -- including The Projectionist, who neither runs a movie theatre or sees her own emotional issues in others -- and Cornell does some clunky, lazy exposition ("Okay, so this is me connecting the alien language processing lobe that got lodged in my brain with all earth media. . . " is the sort of thing that should have gotten him electro-shocked by his editor), but there's some sharp dialogue elsewhere, and the large cast manages to distinguish themselves nicely. Once you get past the early stages, this definitely has an Ellis Authority (as opposed, gods forbid, to anyone who wrote the book after him) feel, and even mentions the Century Babies. Martian Manhunter still seems like an odd fit (the fact that he's also referenced as being in the Justice League makes things either intriguing or clunky), but I'm still a fan of where things are going so far.
4. Batgirl is well-written. That's not a shock. That said, I'm not sure yet how I feel about the change. Simone and DC went with the "Batgirl was Oracle, and is now healed" approach, but without specifics (and this issue had none), it's hard to comment on what happened. That said, the PTSD element is interesting. The minor villains from the reject room of Criminal Minds are less so, but the big bad has potential. But it's still hard for me to get over the lack of Oracle, and while they avoided erasing her, it's still hard for me to swallow.
5. Action: Yeah, Grant Morrison needed to retire a decade ago. "That ain't Superman" isn't quite as bad as Thor saying "pain in the ass," but it's up there. Mind you, Morrison is ten -- no, a thousand -- times more suited to this than JMS, and the book's perfectly readable, but it's nothing special, even though it feels like it's supposed to be. Also, Marv Wolfman and Jerry Ordway still have much to answer for the Thunderbolt Ross rip-off that is Sam Lane. That said, some of the moves here -- reverting Supes to the people's hero he was when he debuted, having Lois and Clark working at different papers -- are interesting. I'm not sure where they're going artistically with Lex Luthor as bored, affected fop, though, but I'm not
6. Detective. The other cornerstone book is worse, though. We've got Batman saying things like, "I own the night," which would be fine if it was voice-over narration, but sucks as a line used to threaten The Joker. And telling Commissioner Gordon, "I have always been in Gotham. I am Gotham" probably wasn't meant to make me giggle. It's like he's the Goddamn Koshman or something. All that said, the twist at the end is nice and creepy, and with better dialogue, this could be interesting. Oh, for those wondering, this book is clearly set in the past, when Bats was an outlaw (although it doesn't stop the Commissioner from using the Bat-Signal, something that needs serious explaining when every other cop has orders to shoot him on sight. Let's chalk it up to bad writing or bad editing).
7. Swamp Thing*. So when birds, fish, and cattle all die suddenly, Superman asks the guy who used to be a plant avatar for help instead of, oh, I don't know, the guy who is connected with all animal life (see #2 above)? Granted, even Alec calls Supes on this one, but that's a waste of ten pages right there. There are references to previous ST stuff (Alec still remembers some of what Swamp Thing was, and still has feelings for Abigail, even though he's never actually met her), and there's a horror sequence that's really, really creepy (especially if you've got some of the bug issues I've got). Basically, once you get past the decompressed storytelling, it's a solid horror title, and I do want to know what happens next.
8. OMAC*. Dammit! I wanted to hate this book, but it's surprisingly fun. Dan Didio has never actually written anything good before, so he's either learned quickly, or shared a lot more of the duties with Keith Giffen than he's letting on (think Bill Jemas's alleged writing partnership with Bendis on Ultimate Spidey). That said, this is a great Kirby fanservice book, with Cadmus, Dubbilex, and lots of other fun bits from his DC-era work. And Giffen does an amazing job of merging Kirby-esque art with Giffen's own highly-structured sense of layout. It's a lot of fun. It's also not Buddy in the suit, but that's not a problem for me.
9. Men of War. Well, Sgt. Rock's grandson is more interesting than fake Sgt. Rock running a poorly-written Suicide Squad, that's for sure. That said, there's not a lot of story here, and the interesting element -- the mix of special forces action with super-heroes -- isn't explored enough for me to know if I'll like it yet. Nothing bad, but nothing great, either. The Navy Seals backup story is pretty pointless and a waste of space, at best.
10. Batwing. Exactly what I expected. Africa is just one big place, where sweeping blanket statements have meaning ("I told Batman a man dressed as a bat will not instill fear in the average criminal in Africa. They have seen too much."), the cops are all corrupt, etc. It's also massively decompressed storytelling, so what happens is there's a massacre, Batwing investigates, there's another massacre, and the villain pops up on the last panel. Meh.
11. Hawk and Dove. Hey, remember how bad Rob Liefield's art used to be? Nothing's changed, although he seems better at feet than he used to be. And I suspect the colorist is to blame for the idea that Hank Hall has a glow-in-the-dark perineum, which has to be the most awesome super-power ever. That said, the story's not half-bad, once again referencing Don Hall (and Hank's sense of loss over him), but showing how awesome Dawn can be (not that she has been in the last ten years, but we're supposed to forget about that). I'm not quite sure I get the whole "Dawn is dating Deadman" thing (since he's presumably still not corporeal), but I'll give it time.
1. If you'd told me that the best book from the first two weeks would have been JLI*, I'd have asked you just how much crack you'd been smoking. But holy crap, this book is solid. It sets just about the perfect tone between serious and silly, it nicely paints Booster Gold as someone who's both competent and self-centered, it's got a good cast, and the Lopresti/Ryan art is also really solid. It also features a great metafictional running gag in which Rocket Red keeps mangling August General in Iron's name to sound like one of my favorite Kanigher/Kubert creations. Basically, this is an example of how to make a book fun without making it slight.
1.5 JLI is also the book featuring the most interesting and entertaining Batman so far. That says more about how bad the "regular" Justice League book and Detective are, to be honest, but Jurgens remembers to give Bats the occasional witty moment to balance the asshole factor. Justice League is just a hot mess of lazy writing combusting into flame, and Detective is just a, well. I don't know what the hell it is. As to the Batman in Batwing, I'm still not sure if he's actually supposed to be a real character or Batwing's hallucination.
2. Animal Man*. It took me two tries to get past the art of the initial few pages, but the story is compelling, existing very nicely in the pre-Vertigo "mature readers" DCU. It's definitely harkens back (both stylistically and thematically) to both Morrison's run and the under-appreciated Tom Veitch run on the book during those days. Unlike most of the stories, there's actually a decent done-in-one adventure that show's Buddy's powers nicely for the new readers, but there's also a nice launch for the ongoing plotline, which looks very, very creepy. In a good way. This might not have been as much fun as JLI, but of the books I've read, it's the one I most want to see issue #2 of right now.
3. Stormwatch*. It's interesting that JLI is basically the New 52's Stormwatch, while Stormwatch is the New 52's Authority. That said, I'm liking Cornell here a lot more than on his Young Avengers run a few years back (my only previous exposure to his comics writing). There are a bunch of new characters -- including The Projectionist, who neither runs a movie theatre or sees her own emotional issues in others -- and Cornell does some clunky, lazy exposition ("Okay, so this is me connecting the alien language processing lobe that got lodged in my brain with all earth media. . . " is the sort of thing that should have gotten him electro-shocked by his editor), but there's some sharp dialogue elsewhere, and the large cast manages to distinguish themselves nicely. Once you get past the early stages, this definitely has an Ellis Authority (as opposed, gods forbid, to anyone who wrote the book after him) feel, and even mentions the Century Babies. Martian Manhunter still seems like an odd fit (the fact that he's also referenced as being in the Justice League makes things either intriguing or clunky), but I'm still a fan of where things are going so far.
4. Batgirl is well-written. That's not a shock. That said, I'm not sure yet how I feel about the change. Simone and DC went with the "Batgirl was Oracle, and is now healed" approach, but without specifics (and this issue had none), it's hard to comment on what happened. That said, the PTSD element is interesting. The minor villains from the reject room of Criminal Minds are less so, but the big bad has potential. But it's still hard for me to get over the lack of Oracle, and while they avoided erasing her, it's still hard for me to swallow.
5. Action: Yeah, Grant Morrison needed to retire a decade ago. "That ain't Superman" isn't quite as bad as Thor saying "pain in the ass," but it's up there. Mind you, Morrison is ten -- no, a thousand -- times more suited to this than JMS, and the book's perfectly readable, but it's nothing special, even though it feels like it's supposed to be. Also, Marv Wolfman and Jerry Ordway still have much to answer for the Thunderbolt Ross rip-off that is Sam Lane. That said, some of the moves here -- reverting Supes to the people's hero he was when he debuted, having Lois and Clark working at different papers -- are interesting. I'm not sure where they're going artistically with Lex Luthor as bored, affected fop, though, but I'm not
6. Detective. The other cornerstone book is worse, though. We've got Batman saying things like, "I own the night," which would be fine if it was voice-over narration, but sucks as a line used to threaten The Joker. And telling Commissioner Gordon, "I have always been in Gotham. I am Gotham" probably wasn't meant to make me giggle. It's like he's the Goddamn Koshman or something. All that said, the twist at the end is nice and creepy, and with better dialogue, this could be interesting. Oh, for those wondering, this book is clearly set in the past, when Bats was an outlaw (although it doesn't stop the Commissioner from using the Bat-Signal, something that needs serious explaining when every other cop has orders to shoot him on sight. Let's chalk it up to bad writing or bad editing).
7. Swamp Thing*. So when birds, fish, and cattle all die suddenly, Superman asks the guy who used to be a plant avatar for help instead of, oh, I don't know, the guy who is connected with all animal life (see #2 above)? Granted, even Alec calls Supes on this one, but that's a waste of ten pages right there. There are references to previous ST stuff (Alec still remembers some of what Swamp Thing was, and still has feelings for Abigail, even though he's never actually met her), and there's a horror sequence that's really, really creepy (especially if you've got some of the bug issues I've got). Basically, once you get past the decompressed storytelling, it's a solid horror title, and I do want to know what happens next.
8. OMAC*. Dammit! I wanted to hate this book, but it's surprisingly fun. Dan Didio has never actually written anything good before, so he's either learned quickly, or shared a lot more of the duties with Keith Giffen than he's letting on (think Bill Jemas's alleged writing partnership with Bendis on Ultimate Spidey). That said, this is a great Kirby fanservice book, with Cadmus, Dubbilex, and lots of other fun bits from his DC-era work. And Giffen does an amazing job of merging Kirby-esque art with Giffen's own highly-structured sense of layout. It's a lot of fun. It's also not Buddy in the suit, but that's not a problem for me.
9. Men of War. Well, Sgt. Rock's grandson is more interesting than fake Sgt. Rock running a poorly-written Suicide Squad, that's for sure. That said, there's not a lot of story here, and the interesting element -- the mix of special forces action with super-heroes -- isn't explored enough for me to know if I'll like it yet. Nothing bad, but nothing great, either. The Navy Seals backup story is pretty pointless and a waste of space, at best.
10. Batwing. Exactly what I expected. Africa is just one big place, where sweeping blanket statements have meaning ("I told Batman a man dressed as a bat will not instill fear in the average criminal in Africa. They have seen too much."), the cops are all corrupt, etc. It's also massively decompressed storytelling, so what happens is there's a massacre, Batwing investigates, there's another massacre, and the villain pops up on the last panel. Meh.
11. Hawk and Dove. Hey, remember how bad Rob Liefield's art used to be? Nothing's changed, although he seems better at feet than he used to be. And I suspect the colorist is to blame for the idea that Hank Hall has a glow-in-the-dark perineum, which has to be the most awesome super-power ever. That said, the story's not half-bad, once again referencing Don Hall (and Hank's sense of loss over him), but showing how awesome Dawn can be (not that she has been in the last ten years, but we're supposed to forget about that). I'm not quite sure I get the whole "Dawn is dating Deadman" thing (since he's presumably still not corporeal), but I'll give it time.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2011-09-08 09:00 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-09-08 09:30 pm (UTC)That said, yeah, I do want to see where the story goes, especially if the PTSD thing is actually a true character bit, and not just the Final Hurdle Babs Needs to Overcome to Be Batgirl Again (in four issues).
(no subject)
Date: 2011-09-09 12:47 am (UTC)Yeah, we'll see. I really want it to be good, damn it.