Well since I opinionated on Justice League #1 last week, might as well carry on as I sample all the #1s coming out and see what falls in the “continue past #2” pile.
Action #1: Despite how much I wanted to dislike it due to the changes in origin and de-powering…it’s a really fucking good comic. Young Superman having a blast and beating up bad guys because it’s the right thing to do is just FUN, as is Lex Luthor throwing a train at him. Parts of it feel ripped out of the Spider-Man movie, but that’s an awesome movie, so why not? Thumbs up!
Detective #1: This is DAAAAAARK stuff. If you haven’t been spoiled to the ending yet, your reaction will be probably echo mine, where it’s like “Oh, he’s chasing the Joker, that’s cool, who’s this dude, HOLY SHIT WHAT THE HELL, DUDE?!” This is not the comic to be giving to young readers to introduce them to Batman. That being said, shock ending aside, it didn’t hook me very much. Not like I don’t have a lot of choice to find my perfect Batman fix anyway. Thumbs in the middle.
Justice League International #1: Since his solo title was cancelled, I’m glad to see Booster at least elevated to main event status with this book, as he’s made leader of the new JLI, even if they’re portrayed as the Smackdown to Justice League’s RAW. Booster and Guy are two of my favorite characters and if this had Ted Kord, it would be an easy winner. This does proceed at a much better pace than Justice League #1 did, quickly establishing the team and putting them against what appears to be a giant robot. Yay. The downside is that unless you already knew about Fire and Ice and Rocket Red from the Giffen league, there’s not much here to hook you as a new reader. I’m an old pro, so I didn’t much exposition on that front. Thumbs up!
Animal Man #1: Kind of trippy and cool, the little mysteries like the bleeding eyes and weird dream sequence left me wanting more. That’s a good thing. I’ve never been a huge fan of the character, but there was a good hook here as long as you can tolerate a bit of the weird factor. Thumbs up!
Hawk and Dove #1: I made it literally 10 pages in and couldn’t take another Rob Liefield action pose with Hawk yelling all his dialogue. Thumbs WAY down.
Batwing #1: I have no strong feelings on this one way or another. Neat cliffhanger, but I don’t know the character and the “Batman franchise” thing doesn’t excite me. Thumbs in the middle, wouldn’t bother with #2.
Batgirl #1: Hey, she can walk again! To its credit, this issue doesn’t give away how Babs got healed, and it portrays her as learning again as she goes along. Pretty fun stuff, I’d stick with it. Thumbs slightly up.
OMAC #1: I LOOOOOOVE Keith Giffen, even if he’s obviously aping Jack Kirby here and I don’t give a shit about OMAC as a concept. It’s fun, if a tad single-minded (the whole issue is the main character seemingly randomly rampaging through Cadmus), but interesting enough. Thumbs in the middle.
Men of War #1: This is a wonderful throwback to Sgt. Rock’s glory years in comics, as his grandson picks up the mantle in present times and you can just feel the Joe Kubert oozing out of it. I’m a sucker for a good war comic, and this felt right out of the early 70s. A simple story (Joe Rock is TOUGH and the men respect him, dammit!) and good manly action make this my second-fave of the week. Big thumbs up!
Definitely pick up Action Comics #1, though. Obviously they’re gonna throw everything in the flagship title, and it showed.
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