Because we are exactly the kind of people crazy enough to pull it off, my friends Alex, Bret and I are reviewing every single #1 issue of DC’s rebooted universe. All 52 of them. I’ll be posting my reviews here, but to follow the glorious nerdery in full, head over to Alex’s blog here.

First: an introduction.

  Anyone who’s talked to me about comics knows that when it comes to superheroes, I’m a Marvel boy. Marvel comics were what got me into comics, and they have been a constant presence in my life since I was 7 years old. That said, when I was around 16, I was buying largely out of force of habit. X-Men, so long my bread and butter, had hit a creative slump (I was reading the British reprints, so there was no sign of New X-Men and the revitalisation it would bring yet) and I was considering giving the whole comics thing a rest. Then, at our city library, I came across three very important titles: Alan Moore’s Watchmen, Warren Ellis’ The Authority and Grant Morrison’s JLA. All three spoke in a much more mature voice, and showed me the potential that comics had as a storytelling medium. Watchmen and The Authority led me to more adult titles – Vertigo and Wildstorm, and eventually on to independent and small press comics. Morrison’s JLA showed me that even an all-ages, continuity bound tale of superheroes could feel fresh and exciting. Now, DC is once again relaunching in an attempt to revitalise their stories and attract new readers, but it’s not just one title – it’s 52. And because I’m a sucker for big formalist exercises, I’m joining with my friends Alex and Bret, and (potentially) some exciting guest stars to review the whole stinking lot.

So…Justice League #1.

  As a statement of intent, Justice League does the job just fine. Interestingly, it’s set five years ago, which I guess allows for the sort of continuity wrangling that this reboot requires, and establishes a world where superheroes are a new, unknown quantity, hunted by the police and not yet used to working together. The opening narration, “There was a time when the world didn’t call them its greatest super-heroes”, suggests that eventually we will move forward to a timeframe when the Justice League are respected and even beloved by the public, which to me should be the status in the DCU. More than Marvel, the heroes of DC are iconic, larger than life, and placing them in a more grounded*, cynical world suggests “darkness” for the sake of it.

  The story is a fairly standard tale of superheroes (in this case Batman and Green Lantern) meeting for the first time, resulting in a clash of personalities that almost comes to blows, before they team up to investigate a threat that leads them to Metropolis, and the still new-to-the-world Superman. Batman’s characterisation is fairly well set now, and Green Lantern, seemingly informed by the recent movie, is presented as a cocksure, arrogant figure who occasionally refers to himself in the third person (ugh). Jim Lee even seems to be drawing him as something of a pretty boy (after all, Ryan Reynolds is a very handsome man).

  As far as the rest of the art goes, Lee’s Batman feels a little clumsy – not the urban ninja figure I think of him as, and the action feels a little stilted. That said, he does some nice work with the layout during the detour to the soon-to-be Cyborg, and his splash page of Superman at the end feels suitably grand. I’m not sure how I feel about the new costume for Supes – costume design has never been Lee’s strong suit, so getting him to redesign DC’s most iconic, profitable heroes feels like a poor decision.

  Overall, it’s a fine enough start for the new DC universe. Were I a more regular DC reader, I’d be interested as to how the Flash, Wonder Woman and Aquaman will be portrayed in this new paradigm, but as it is, this first issue wasn’t enough to make me want to carry on reading the title. One can only guess what the next month will bring.

*As grounded as a universe containing gods, mutants, aliens, robots, Atlantis and people in tights beating each other up can be…

Men Of War #1

Men of War is one of DC’s attempts to branch out a little beyond straight-up superheroics – in this case it’s a military anthology title. That said, it’s still located within the DCU – the main story in this issue (a modern day version of Sergeant Rock) features a US Army operation that goes tits up when a mysterious superhuman attacks the same target as them. The back-up strip, titled “Navy SEALs: Human Shields”, is much more of a standard military tale, located, like the main story, in some unnamed Middle Eastern country, featuring a team of SEALs pinned down by sniper fire. 

Both stories are heavy with military jargon (helpfully annotated with translations) and gung-ho spirit. The Sergeant Rock story casts the main character as a scarred enlisted infantryman, still only a Corporal at the beginning of the book, who disobeys his superiors but makes brilliant tactical decisions. His mentor is an equally rebellious badass who is killed in action at the issue’s end, field-promoting our hero. Ivan Brandon creates a compelling tale of what military action in a superpowered world might look like, contrasting the power of one powered individual against the human squad, and Tom Derenick’s art is dynamic and atmospheric, with suitably craggy-faced heroes and explosive action.

The back-up strip didn’t work quite as well for me. Jonathan Vankin’s writing felt overly expository, and Phil Winslade’s art, while agreeably reminiscent of British military titles like Commando, was too sparse and his faces all look the same. In addition, there was a hefty undercurrent of conservative values (know your audience, I suppose) with some unfunny homophobic “jokes” and digs at the Peace Corps, as well as a “oh course I’m not racist, some of my best friends are black!” moment that felt a little preachy.

Overall, as a genre I’m unused to, I enjoyed the first story more than I thought I would, but the second spoilt the experience for me somewhat.

Men Of War #1 – Final Grade: C+

Stormwatch #1

If you read my little introductory preamble to my review of Justice League last week, you’ll know that The Authority was one of the books that reignited my passion for comics after a couple of years of buying purely out of habit. Despite my tastes having changed and my critical eye improved somewhat, it is a series I still love, despite its flaws. The characters were fresh new spins on classic archetypes, and the realpolitik approach to the realm of superheroes, and how they would impact the world was well realised and flawlessly executed.  As such, I have a lot of affection for the characters, and a big part of me is excited to see them A) revived and B) brought into a new universe, with a whole bunch of new characters to clash with. However, there is another part that says, “Can these characters, with their particular brand of heroics, function in the idealistic, four-colour world of the DCU? Won’t such a clash of ideals ring false, with the Wildstorm characters feeling gritty for the sake of shock, and the DC characters feeling like relics of a simpler age?” 

  Luckily, Paul Cornell is at the helm, a writer I have a lot of respect for, and if this issue is anything to go by, he is more than up to the task of balancing these two tones. Stormwatch is presented as an existing organisation, one that has protected from the shadows long before the dawn of superheroes 5 years ago in the new DCU, and one that is more than willing to make the tough decisions and muddy up their morals. As the Martian Manhunter says in this issue, you can be a hero, or you can be a warrior, and Stormwatch is for warriors. Basically, while Superman is saving your life and Batman is foiling your evil schemes, Stormwatch is in ur base, killing ur doodz.

  In some ways, the issue echoes last weeks Justice League, with disparate heroes uniting, personalities and powers outlined, and a new character revealed on the final page, having quickly dispatched our heroes. However, Paul Cornell handles the necessary exposition much more gracefully and smoothly, laying more groundwork for future stories without sacrificing momentum, and Miguel Sepulveda’s art is cleaner and clearer, telling the story with the minimum of fuss, and some nice touches in the action. The digital colouring and various overlays used as graphics, or to indicate shape shifting are a little distracting, but otherwise it’s a very pretty looking comic. The only downside on the art is the awful redesigns of Apollo and Midnighter, both of whom have traded in simple, classic costumes for awful over-designed crap. Midnighter looks like he’s playing some kind of futuristic version of American football that involves bondage wear, and who the hell decided that giving Apollo a haircut was a good idea?

  Still, these are small criticisms against an otherwise very solid first issue – the first of the DC relaunches that I will be picking up next month to see what happens.

Stormwatch #1 – Final Grade: A

Batwing #1

Batwing is the first solo title I’ve reviewed, and the difference it makes to the pacing of the comic is immediately felt. Rather than having to cram in multiple introductions (or, in the case of Justice League, only introduce a few characters and leave the reader feeling short-changed) it has one central figure to build a story around, and while a supporting cast and recurring villains are also introduced, their characterisation isn’t so essential, so can be dealt with at a more leisurely pace. Batwing doesn’t feel nearly as rushed as other titles have, and as such feels more like a story in its own right, rather than a preamble to the real meat of a title.

  I haven’t been reading the “Batman Incorporated” arc (I can already feel Alex tutting at me across the Internet) so this is my first encounter with Batwing. I must admit, the concept of “Batman of Africa” struck me as both a little hokey, and lodged in the Silver Age (people do realise Africa isn’t one big country, right? Tell me I’m not in a minority on this…) but Judd Winick makes it work by highlighting the similarities between Gotham and Batwing’s Tinasha (such as a corrupt police force and a brazen criminal culture prone to theatrics) without sacrificing the cultural identity of the Congolese setting, or falling into stereotypes. The universe relaunch works in the title’s favour – with superheroes reinvented as a more recent phenomena, the huge disparity in global distribution is easier to accept, and Winick and Ben Oliver seem to be addressing this ever further by building a superheroic mythology for Africa in the DCU.

  More than anything, the art sells me on this book. Ben Oliver’s pencils and inks are gorgeous; astonishingly detailed, with realistic expressions and great costuming without sacrificing dynamic layouts or a sense of weight and movement in the action sequences. It’s a truly beautiful comic, aided by Brian Reber’s painterly colouring, which gives the daytime sequences a kind of heat haze while adding a moonlight glow to the action at night.

  Time will tell whether Batwing will generate enough sales to keep it going long past it’s first arc, but if the standard continues to be this high, it deserves a long and healthy life.

Batwing #1 – Final Grade: A

Hawk & Dove #1

I wanted to give this comic the benefit of the doubt. Hawk & Dove, as concepts go, are no more ridiculous than a whole host of other comic characters, and the idea of a superhero duo is one rarely explored (Power Man & Iron Fist being the most obvious one). Before picking up the book, I was explaining to Bret how you could use the concept for a light-hearted “buddy cop” style-book, or a more serious examination of the ethics of superheroics, how pacifism holds up in extreme situations, and where heroism becomes vigilantism, or even plain thuggery. Never mind that it was written by Sterling Gates, who sounds like a suburban home improvements company, and drawn by Rob Liefeld, who sounds like the 4^th seal of the Apocalypse cracking open as all your crops and livestock die. There are no bad characters, just bad executions, right?

Hawk & Dove is not a good comic. In fact, it’s a pretty bad comic. DC’s relaunch, combined with the new push into digital comics, has given them the opportunity to reach a whole new audience who had previously been turned off by convoluted continuity, to challenge people’s preconceptions of what a superhero comic was, to tell new, exciting stories freed from a 70 year history. Hawk & Dove fails on all those counts. The writing is terrible, with long passages of exposition that constantly break the golden rule of storytelling: “Show, don’t tell”. Despite being a relaunch, it immediately bogs the book down in continuity, with a large chunk of the comic given to retelling the story of a character who is no longer in the title. The dialogue is clunky, lacking flow or snap, and the plot is typical superhero fare that we’ve seen a million times before, with no real imagination injected into the telling. There is nothing here to entice new readers, no originality and nothing to excite or stir anyone’s interest.

As for the art, those familiar with Rob Liefeld will not be surprised to learn he has not changed one iota. His faces are indistinguishable (the only way to tell Hawk from his father is the fact that his father has white hair) and he knows two expressions: scowly grimace for the men and open-mouthed blank for the women. His grasp of human anatomy is as famously poor as always – Dove seems to be suffering from an extreme case of hip dysplasia and I’m not sure where her internal organs are meant to fit in her abdomen. The action sequences are pedestrian and the costume design is lodged firmly in the late 80s (as are the hairstyles).

Overall, if you know comics, you know how bad this book will be, and if you don’t know comics, you can probably guess just from the front cover.

Hawk & Dove #1 – Final Grade: D-

Batgirl #1

There is so much to be gleaned about Batgirl from the wonderful front cover by Adam Hughes. The art is of the high standard one has come to expect from Hughes, detailed without being too busy, painterly but with a pop sensibility. Barbara Gordon AKA Batgirl isn’t sexualised, nor is she striking an aggressive pose, but instead is leaping forward, into action. And she’s smiling! She looks like she actually enjoys being a superhero!

Batgirl was always going to be an interesting relaunch, after they announced that Barbara Gordon was once again going to be taking up the mantle, but they weren’t going to retcon away her shooting by the Joker and subsequent paralysis. Given that, in her guise as Oracle, Barbara become such a symbol for disabled comics readers, someone they could identify with who wasn’t defined by her disability, it seemed strange and downright regressive of DC to change the status quo in this regard. Most comic readers never knew Barbara as anyone other than Oracle, so there was no great clamouring for her to be restored. Still, with Gail Simone writing, I trusted that the transition would be at least smooth, if not perfect.

Like Batwing, the breathing room that dealing with a single hero as opposed to a group is evident here. However, where Batwing used that space to allow Ben Oliver’s stunning art to shine, Batgirl instead crams in twice as much story. No decompression here! It’s a credit to Simone’s mastery of writing that the issue doesn’t feel weighed down or overly stuffed by the various storylines at work here (prologue, action sequence, introducing supporting cast, more action, flashbacks) and instead feels solidly packed with a great mix of plot and characterisation. We are quickly given a firm grasp on Barbara as a character struggling to readjust to the heroic life, but nonetheless determined to put a positive spin on things. Unlike her mentor Batman, Batgirl brings levity and wit to her escapades, which makes her dramatic freezing under pressure all the more shocking.  The art by Ardian Syaf is nothing extraordinary, but does a very solid job of storytelling, with enough creativity in the layouts to keep things interesting and the action sequences fast-paced and flowing.

Whether taking Barbara out of the wheelchair and putting her back in the Batgirl costume is the right decision is tough to judge at this point, but as far as the comic goes, it does a fantastic job of introducing a character’s history without feeling like a lecture on them. A good first issue that does everything it needs to with charm to spare.

Batgirl #1 – Final Grade: B+

Resurrection Man #1

Resurrection Man, one of the lower-tier titles in DC’s relaunch, poses an interesting question. When your hero’s power is coming back from the dead, how do you put him in peril? This series answer seems to be: get metaphysical on his ass, as the issue quickly establishes that Resurrection Man is somehow involved in a struggle between heaven and hell (albeit hidden behind references to “Upstairs” and the “Basement Office”). The whole Jesus parallel has yet to be raised, but you can feel it around the corner already, and the Lady Gaga-esque Suriel who attempts to abduct/kill/rescue Mitch (it’s not quite clear what, probably intentionally) is a suitably fresh take on the appearance of angels.

  It’s a clever tack to take, and establishes a corner of the DCU for him to explore, and an atmosphere of foreboding and dread that permeates the comic. Resurrection Man is an odd duck – he doesn’t suit the typical pants-on-the-outside version of superheroics, and DC seem to almost be positioning him as a Constantine-type figure (which is funny, given that they’ve only just finished dragging him back into mainstream DC continuity) what with the whole religious angle, and the hobo-chic that Mitch rocks throughout the issue (clothing seeming something of an issue when you spend a large chunk of your time being autopsied and sucked through jet engines). It is no doubt intentional that the only time he is actually referred to as “Resurrection Man”, it is treated as a title, as opposed to his actual name.

  Abnett and Lanning, best known for their work revitalising Marvel’s cosmic heroes in Annihilation, write a well-constructed comic, with snappy enough dialogue, and a layering of threats and agendas that is reminiscent of pulp detective fiction (only with more exploding planes and angels being struck by lightning), and Mitch’s internal dialogue gives us plenty of insight into the grim details of his powers. Fernando Dagnino’s art works best when he’s establishing the shady, noir-ish tone, with heavy inks and interesting choices when it comes to panel construction, but he fails a little when it comes to the action sequences, which lose some of the clarity and sense of space that he had earlier in the book.

  Without the name recognition of other books to draw on, Resurrection Man does a good enough job of giving readers a reason to be intrigued, and shows that the superhero genre can support a decent amount of variation when it comes to tone.

Resurrection Man #1 – Final Grade: B-

Frankenstein: Agent of S.H.A.D.E. #1

  Comics, as a medium, can support all sorts of stories. From the kid-friendly antics of The Beano and The Dandy, to the sensitive slice of life tales produced by the likes of Adrian Tomine, to journalism and biography and every other type of fiction and non-fiction there is. That said, when I think about comics at their purest, I think of comics like Frankenstein. They have moments that I refer to as COMICS! It’s Iron Man being brought back to life by one of Thor’s lightning bolts channelled through Captain America’s shield. It’s Superman using the miniaturised Kandorians to punch a child’s cancer into remission. It’s Frankenstein being teleported into a 3-inch hovering ball that houses the shrunken base of a government agency with a ridiculous acronym that is dedicated to fighting evil, to receive his orders from a Japanese schoolgirl.

  If Resurrection Man is being positioned as the DCU’s new Constantine, Frankenstein is quite clearly its Hellboy. The premise of the comic is heavily indebted to Mike Mignola’s iconic hero, down to the squad of supernatural beasties there to support his adventures. Where they differ is tone. Hellboy was a salt-of-the-earth, short-tempered slob in a world of grim mysteries and dark shadows. Frankenstein is a dour, Milton-quoting gentleman in a world of mad science and pulp insanity. His team are mostly well-drawn archetypes at this point, with enough friction between them to generate one-liners and enough story hooks to suggest their backgrounds will be well explored in the future. The issue is very heavy on exposition, but manages to mix up the format in which it is introduced between captions and monologues enough to keep the pace brisk. The art by Alberto Ponticelli is sketchy in style, but feels appropriately visceral, with some nice horror moments and an appealingly chaotic splash of Frankenstein and his Creature Commandos tearing into the monsters. The character designs feel organic and stylish, and the art complements the relentless nature of the comic. As a protagonist, Frankenstein isn’t that well defined yet, but Lemire has at least given him a distinctive voice, and his relationship with his wife looks to be a defining aspect of the character and a way to explore his place in the world.

  Mostly, Frankenstein sustains itself on the sense of pulpy fun that infuses every page. It’s a comic that throws everything it has at the wall in the hope that something will stick for every reader, and that’s an approach that I can’t help but admire, especially in a first issue, when capturing interest is crucial.

Frankenstein: Agent of S.H.A.D.E. #1 – Final Grade: A

Mister Terrific #1

A character called “Mister Terrific” is always going to have his work cut out for him. For someone who is presented as the third smartest man in the world, as well as a billionaire businessman, you’d have thought he would have invested in some market research first.

  It’s been interesting reading the second and third-tier titles of this new DC Universe for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is that each has been establishing their particular corner of the world. Men of War’s primary strip showed us war in a super-powered world, Stormwatch took us into the renegade black-ops weirdness just under the surface of traditional superhero antics, and Resurrection Man began exploring the cosmology and metaphysical roots of the new 52. As well as establishing a tone for the title, they also stake out a boundary in this new, different world. War is like this, angels work like this; while the big names tell their stories in the centre of the universe, the smaller titles are out at the fringes, marking territory. Mister Terrific seems set to do this for the realm of super-science in the new DCU.

  Having finished the comic, I took some time to think about science-based heroes in the DCU, and realised there are remarkably few. In the Marvel world, you can’t move without tripping over a scientist-hero (Iron Man, half of the Fantastic Four, Bruce Banner, whatever Hank Pym’s calling himself nowadays…) whereas in DC comics, there’s Steel, the Atom and Mister Terrific, and that’s about it. Sure, Batman is supposed to be a scientific genius, but that’s not how he’s framed by stories, and that’s not the world he inhabits. Maybe it’s that so many of the characters were devised in the 30’s, when there was less of sense of scientific exploration, and a lingering resentment towards the big business figures who’d let the Great Depression happen. Who knows? But it’s clear that there’s a vacancy for a scientific figurehead in the DC universe, and Mister Terrific aims to fill it.

You’ll notice that I haven’t actually said anything about the comic itself yet, and that’s mainly because it left very little impression. It was fine as an opening slice of superhero action. Eric Wallace establishes the character, his supporting cast and his little corner of the world well enough, and Gianluca Gugliotta’s tells the story with the minimum of fuss and enough spark to keep the story moderately interesting, but both as a character and as a first issue, Mister Terrific has very little to make him pop. The character’s origins feel so entirely generic that they give the character no real definition, and the story we’re presented with, while competent, has none of the sense of wonder or exploration that science heroes should inspire, and never truly breaks out any of the weird and impossible technology or concepts that the book could support. There’s nothing especially wrong with the issue, but it feels like superheroes-by-numbers, and the opportunity that these first issues present to reinvigorate characters shouldn’t be squandered on such generic fare.

Mister Terrific #1 – Final Grade: C-