DCnU Reviews, Week 1: Men of War; O.M.A.C.; Stormwatch

(Back in June when the new DCU titles were announced, I ranked all 52 titles on my likelihood of buying them. Only fair then to look back and see if my initial assessments hold up. My plan is to review each of the new titles as they come out.)

Men of War #1
by Ivan Brandon & Tom Derenick; Jonathan Vankin & Phil Winslade

Original Rank/Assessment:  39 (Probably Not) - I think I'd rather see this as a straight war comic without the super-hero-y stuff.

I'm not much of a fan of war comics; if it's not written by Garth Ennis or drawn by Joe Kubert (or features a Haunted Tank or a G.I. Robot) it doesn't hold much appeal to me. And true to form this didn't hold much appeal to me. The grandson of the classic WWII character Sgt. Rock argues with superiors and leads an ill-fated combat mission against an unknown meta-human. The story in the back-up, featuring Navy Seals, is even less inspired, though I really like the style of art that Winslade is using. It's all competently done, and I'm glad that a comic like this has a place in the New 52, but it's really just not for me.

Rating: 2.5 (of 5).

O.M.A.C. #1
by Dan Didio, Keith Giffen & Scott Koblish

Original Rank/Assessment:  27 (Maybe/Provisional) - Giffen co-writing and drawing bumps a concept I normally wouldn't care about up into the provisional category.

This was a nice surprise. A comic like this rises and falls on the execution, and Didio & Giffen pull it off nicely. On paper I shouldn't like this much; it's just a big rampage by a mostly-mindless hulk-like O.M.A.C., but Didio & Giffen effectively use the action to introduce us to all of the central concepts in the series. Giffen adds just enough Kirbyness to his art to give it an extra dose of vitality, and the colors by Hi-Fi really pop. It remains to be seen how the concept will work as an ongoing series, but for a first issue it sets the tables nicely and has me wanting more.

Rating: 3.5 (of 5).

Stormwatch #1
by Paul Cornell & Miguel Spulveda

Original Rank/Assessment:  21 (Maybe/Provisional) - Cornell has yet to let me down, but I really don't see this Wildstorm concept fitting in to the DCnU, and Martian Manhunter seems like a really odd fit.

I really need to have more faith in Cornell; I didn't think the concept would work, but he pulls it off. We learn that Stormwatch is a secret society, protecting Earth from all sorts of unseen enemies over the centuries. And in this setting,  the Martian Manhunter fits in perfectly. We only get to briefly know each of the characters, but it works as an introductory issue. It also looks like the menaces they face will be sufficiently big and out-there to warrant the group's existence. I'm in.

Rating: 3.5 (of 5).

DCnU Reviews, Week 1: Green Arrow; Justice League International

(Back in June when the new DCU titles were announced, I ranked all 52 titles on my likelihood of buying them. Only fair then to look back and see if my initial assessments hold up. My plan is to review each of the new titles as they come out.)

Green Arrow #1
by J.T. Krul, Dan Jurgens & George Pérez

Original Rank/Assessment: 51 (Definitely No) - One of my least favorite writers on a character I could care less about.

I'm not much of a Green Arrow fan. I'll read the comic if there's a creator working on it that I like, but that's as far as my affection for the character goes. I've also never cared much for J.T. Krul's writing, and this comic didn't do anything to change my mind. Our DCnU Green Arrow Oliver Queen is still in his early wealthy stage, in charge of Queen Industries though having to answer to a hostile board. He's moonlighting as a super-hero with a bow. He fights a group of one-dimensional villains for some reason. A different group of interchangeable bad guys shows up at the end. It's all very rote and by-the-numbers. On the plus side, the art by Jurgens & Pérez is highly competent and nice to look at; it carries the story well, what little there is of it. But nice art isn't enough to save this from being dull.

Rating: 2 (of 5).

Justice League International #1
by Dan Jurgens, Aaron Lopresti & Matt Ryan

Original Rank/Assessment: 6 (Definitely Yes) - A return to my second-favorite JL era, with Aaron Lopresti on art, makes for a winning combination.


This one was a relative disappointment, but mainly because I had had what in hindsight appear to have been unreasonably high hopes. Jurgens handles the story competently, introducing us to the various characters, though frustratingly leaving much of their new backstory vague. This is a team thrown together by politics, so we get a bit of workplace friction and can likely expect more. (I like how Batman just joins the team on his own, without being asked.) I'd like to see a bit more humor from a comic with this book's pedigree though. Lopresti's art and storytelling are in fine form, and the coloring is appropriately bright. I'd like to see a bit more humor from a comic with this book's pedigree though. In all, this is a solid super-hero team book; it just needs an extra something to make it stand out from the pack.


Rating: 3 (of 5).

DCnU Reviews, Week 1: Action Comics

(Back in June when the new DCU titles were announced, I ranked all 52 titles on my likelihood of buying them. Only fair then to look back and see if my initial assessments hold up. My plan is to review each of the new titles as they come out.)

Action Comics #1
by Grant Morrison, Rags Morales & Rick Bryant

Original Rank/Assessment: 1 (Definitely Yes) - They had me at Grant Morrison + Superman.

Of all of the New 52 relaunch titles, this is the one which had me the most excited. Grant Morrison's All-Star Superman (with Frank Quitely) is in my opinion the best super-hero comic of the past twenty years. So Morrison's new take on Superman has a lot to live up to. Thankfully, it mostly does.

It is tempting to compare Action to All-Star; where the later presented a Superman at the end of his career, Action starts the story in Superman's early days. All-Star was an ode to the silver-age Superman, while Action draws upon Superman's earliest golden-age adventures for inspiration. But I think that such comparisons at this point are a bit premature; All-Star is a completed work, while Action is just the first issue in what is meant to be the foundation of a new mythology for the Man of Steel.

True to its name, Action Comics has plenty of action. A young Clark Kent is new to Metropolis, and is committed to fighting injustice, both as a would-be hero-of-the-people and as a crusading reporter for the Daily Star. We get introduced to Kent, as well as his best friend Jimmy Olsen and Olsen's boss Lois Lane, both of whom work at the rival Daily Planet. We also get a glimpse of Lex Luthor, who is working with a homeland security-type organization to try to bring the brash young hero down.

What we don't get is an origin story. In All-Star, Morrison covered the well-known origin of Superman in just one page. In Action, he dispenses with it entirely. This is good. If any super-hero's origin is well-known, it is Superman's. Instead we are thrown right into the action, drawn with dynamism by Morales, in an escapade that could have come right out of one of Superman's earliest stories by Siegel and Shuster in the original Action Comics.

In fact, keep your copy of the first volume of The Superman Chronicles handy, as there are and I presume will continue to be many allusions and call-backs to those formative stories of the late 1930s. Those were the days when this country was straining to climb out of the great depression, and there was still great mistrust in politicians, corporations, bankers, etc. Not a completely analogous situation to today's America, but not far off either. And thus we get a Superman for our times, a crusader who stands for truth and justice. Every generation gets the Superman it needs; and Morrison is giving us ours.

Rating: 4 (of 5).