Welcome to the fifth and final week of my DC reboot reviews. 52 new comics were released and I’ve reviewed a good solid chunk of them. And for the greater part, they’ve been pretty damn good. I won’t lie, DC has done their homework and is definitely more of a player than they once were. So here goes my final review of the new titles; and before I start, here is your SPOILER ALERT. Keep in mind, I try to keep the spoilers to a minimum but some things can’t be avoided.
All Star Western
Gotham's got no idea what's coming.
For an extra dollar, this was a double wide issue that really brought the reader into the world of 1880′s Gotham City. The title is actually a bit of false advertising; while it does take place in the 1800′s, Gotham is a very much industrialized place that lies in the East. Yet, some of the classic themes of Western comics come into play (Evidently, Gotham fought for the North. Figures.)
The story starts with Jonah Hex’s arrival in Gotham. He is a fish out of water as he walks into the city with CSA uniform on, his pistols around his waist, and his horse at his side. Hex was called to the big city by Dr. Amadeus Arkham, a brilliant psychologist that most readers will know for opening and lending his namesake to Arkham Aslyum. Arkham has called Hex to Gotham to get his help in tracking down a very Jack the Ripperesque killer known as The Gotham Butcher, known for slaughtering prostitutes and leaving messages in their blood.
While Jonah Hex gets the cover and would seem to be the center of this comic, it’s not all about him. If you simplify it down, this is basically a buddy cop story. You have the utterly badass and gritty as hell Jonah Hex paired with a well-educated and very proper Dr. Amadeus Arkham. This team-up is bizarre but really well done. The story is compelling and might actually give the Dark Knight a run for his money.
My only complaint is the narration. Dr. Arkham narrates. A lot. It’s almost exhausting. But it’s most certainly not anything that will keep me from issue 2.
The Flash
It’s not really fair to The Flash that I just finished reading Flashpoint at the start of the month. No Flash comic was going to compare to that awesomeness; but this new number 1 is pretty good, if not a bit formulaic.
Barry Allen is at a party that’s displaying the newest technologies to hit Central City(Why was Green Arrow the only hero to get moved to a real life city? I liked that!!) The technology gets attacked by armed men and since it’s nothing but tech geeks, they’re all doomed. Thankfully, Barry changes into The Flash, kicks ass, and takes names.
To little surprise, the attack is linked to someone from Barry’s past. Barry begins investigating into it and turns up a surprise. The twist on the last page was good. This comic wasn’t anything extremely special but I’m not saying it wasn’t good! It just wasn’t anything that was too new. Maybe I’m just a snob when it comes to Flash now.
Justice League Dark
I bought this for one, very simple reason: John Constantine is in it. This is sort of a big deal! For the past 10-20 years, John has stuck to DC’s Vertigo line and has become one of my favorite all-time comic characters. So when I heard he was going to be part of The Justice League in the reboot, I was perplexed. It just didn’t seem to fit. So, I bought this comic, planning to see if they messed up one of my all time favorite characters. And…
HE WAS ON ONE FREAKING PAGE
The biggest character in this comic and he’s on one page? I’m not going to try to understand it. Ignoring Mr. Constantine getting the shaft, the rest of the comic wasn’t half-bad. Madame Xanadu is getting visions of a dark future (no one ever sees happy futures, do they?) and only the magic wielders of the DC universe can prevent it. This is actually shown to be pretty true as Superman, Wonder Woman, and Cyborg get their worlds rocked as they attempt to fight Enchantress. This leaves the JLA out of their element and needing a new set of heroes to handle the more supernatural elements.
The story was surprisingly good and, holy shit, I love Zatanna’s new look. Despite going into this comic and expecting it to be bad, I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it.
The Savage Hawkman
I went into this comic knowing little to nothing about Hawkman. I can honestly still say that I still know very little about Hawkman. This first issue was very confusing and provided very little information for a new reader.
Carter Hall (Hawkman) is burning the harness and wings that give him his powers. The fire turns into a bird and flies into him and then he wakes up in his apartment. More madness ensues and I really didn’t understand a lot of since little to no backstory was provided.
The action wasn’t bad but the art kind of put me off along with the story problems. This comic is definitely a bit of fan service but new readers probably won’t get a whole lot from it.
Green Lantern: New Guardians
Get this comic.
The initial synopsis of this book sounded like nothing special. A central hero that the reader knows (Kyle Rayner) is assembling a team of heroes that have differing opinions on use of power. Whacky hijinks ensue. I expected the first issue to start out with Kyle Rayner trying to maintain order as the group met for the first time and tried not to kill each other.
I was pleasantly surprised. The comic starts with showing the reader how Kyle originally became a Green Lantern. Then it hops forward to the present, showing Kyle still in action. I was pleasantly surprised by how they executed this comic and I don’t want to ruin the surprise. How they brought together the lanterns from all the different spectrums was absolutely brilliant and left me wide eyed and surprised. I’m calling this the sleeper hit of the reboot and I am very excited for issue 2. If you haven’t read it yet, you need to.
Aquaman
Yeah, this thing is going to eat your soul.
I saved the best for last. You read that right. I currently have so much egg on my face, it’s like I tripped into an omlette. In my original, preliminary review, I talked about how Aquaman can’t be cool and how he is a running joke in the comic world. Geoff Johns knew that going into this comic. He used that to make it absolutely brilliant.
Aquaman has one of those “Oh shit” moments that will make you stop and be surprised at just how badass he can be. I found myself saying out loud, to no one in particular, “I didn’t know he could do that!” As Aquaman leaves, cops are in disbelief that they “just got upstaged by Aquaman.” This comic paints Aquaman as a clever, emotional, and kind of a pissy man that has to walk between two worlds.
The real world and the DC universe run close in parallel as someone talks about how he is “nobody’s favorite superhero.” That’s the respect Aquaman is treated too. While this comic both plays on Aquaman’s role in the comic world AND cements him as a badass, it also briefly tells his origin and explains his powers. It’s done tastefully and definitely doesn’t feel like an origin story.
Finally, the villains. Holy crap, The Trench are terrifying. Try to imagine the most evil creature you can and they should be pretty close to your worst nightmares. Not only are they evil looking, they’re hungry. I’m looking forward to seeing how their story unfolds. I’m hoping for a crossover with the rest of the JLA vs The Trench. But even if it’s not, I’ll still be happy. I now know Aquaman can hold his own story and I’d still be happy to read it.
Geoff Johns, Ivan Reis? You guys did it. You made Aquaman cool.
No comments:
Post a Comment