“Is he trying to tell Batman what he can’t do?”
“Twenty American Dollars says Batman breaks his Jaw.”
Justice League International #2
Holy mother of pain, just read Aquaman #1. I take back every joke I ever made about him. Aquaman is fucking awesome.
A quick sketch and ink of Harley Quinn from the cover of Suicide Squad #1.
Definitely wanting more Suicide Squad.
I picked up Voodoo #1 as part of my ‘it sounds dire and thus is probably awesome’ incentive. So did this deliver? Hell yes it did. The art was pretty essential in making the book more than the sum of its parts. Sam Basri does an amazing job. Priscilla is drawn in graceful motion as she strips. She is the ‘object’ that everyone is watching, including the reader, but she is also returning the gaze. It works to undermine the assumed power relations. This is emphasized in the scene where she transforms and strikes the agent; her shadow, still in human form, appears to dance.
Jessica Kholinne’s colours are phenomenal. The lighting is stunning. There is a general smokey miasma in The Voodoo Lounge. Ron Marz essentially threads it all together. His pacing is perfect and the dialogue it tight, for the most part.
Voodoo is a book that deserves closer inspection. I hope it doesn’t get overlooked because I’m looking forward to seeing where this one goes.
Yes. Fucking YES. That’s my reaction to the opening couple pages of Wonder Woman #1. DC have tried to maintained this trinity of Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman. The problem is Wonder Woman just hasn’t been up to scratch. The public perception of her is so stunningly camp I’m almost surprised Adam West wasn’t cast as her in the 70s TV Show. Come on! She’s fucking Wonder Woman. The most recognisable female superhero around. She deserves better. What Wonder Woman needs, just as Batman did, is her very own Year One. So, is this it?
We’re only a single issue in so obviously it’s hard to say but things look promising. Everything has been updated. The gods feel young and yet ancient, both heartless and down to Earth, terrifying and yet beautiful. Everything definitely errs on the side of horror; the gods treat the inhabitants of Earth as playthings, either burning out the bodies of three young ladies converted to oracles or beheading horses to form vicious centaurs. Cliff Chang has done an astounding job piecing together a world with bold and defining lines. The whole thing does seem to hint at Batman Year One whether that is intentional or not. The colours are both vibrant and muted. This is very much a dark world, filled with horrors and illuminated by magic and power.
In a nice nod to Flashpoint we first meet Diana in London (and as far as I’m concerned, from now on she’s a London gal). Almost instantly she is thrown into a battle between monsters and gods and Wonder Woman kick bloody ass. Almost literally, this book has buckets full of the red stuff. Brian Azzarello’s writing is great if not a little unclear sometimes. I eagerly look forward to the rest of his take on our favorite Amazon.
I don’t think anyone can accuse Wonder Woman of being camp anymore. This is definitely another book I’ll be sticking with.
I enjoyed this immensely. No, wait, that’s half true. So, I’m reading, enjoying. I’m new to Green Lantern. It’s always confused me. I read Rebirth and spent most the time on Wikipedia. So I’m seeing Sinestro, he’s all Green Lanterned up. I know this is a big deal. More than that, I get that this is some epic shit. It’s alien, it’s exciting. Hell, I’m thinking, I might get into this Green Lantern faff.
And then - not unlike a camera in Michael Bay’s hands - Hal Jordan turns up in an attempt to destroy everything. Not only is he cocky, smug and reckless he’s now unemployed, too. True, this description also fits me perfectly, but I’m not the star of a comic book. If Hal Jordan has taught me anything it’s that I have the power to punch my consciousness out of any coma, no matter how deep. I had to do this every time the story switched back to Sinestro. I’m on the fence with this comic; on one side is Sinestro and some pretty slick issue one motivation, on the other side is Hal Jordan who’s about as endearing as a cardboard box stuffed with plague rats.
So, I love Green Lantern #1. And then Hal Jordan turns up.
Superboy #1
Superboy was one of the two ongoing books that I bought before DCNu (The other being Batman Beyond, of course). After reading Johns and Manapul’s Superboy: Boy of Steel I was sold on a character who could do everything Superman could do and more but had a crucial added dimension to him that Superman couldn’t really match; Conner Kent is a trans-terrestrial meta-clone (in layman’s terms he’s Clark Kent and Lex Luthor’s love child…so this is awkward).
The previous ongoing was more than disappointing, it was just fantastically boring. This is a hard reboot and here are the origin stories. I’ve read a couple of reviews that pick on a lack of emotional connection with Superboy in this issue. I don’t really get this since Superboy is a borderline sociopath in this. To empathise with such a character would be a contradiction in terms. Superboy even explicitly acknowledges that his moral perceptions might be affected and that if this was the case he just wouldn’t know. So, to be blunt, if a lack of empathy is something you take issue with in this first issue then you’re probably missing the point.
I’ve breezed through most of DCNu so far and this book has so far felt the most substantial in terms of character growth (not hard considering he went from fetus to teenager in 20 or so pages, true). The end puts Superboy on a collision course with Teen Titans which I’m rather exited about. Superboy is definitely a keeper in my mind. Looking forward to Teen Titans #1 and Superboy #2.
Simon Bisley’s cover is stunning.
I picked up Deathstroke #1 because I got a 90s trash ultra violence vibe from it. It wasn’t quite as hyper violent as I wanted it to be but it was full of cheesy melodrama, which I loved. That’s not to say Deathstroke, or ‘Lovetap’ as I shall now refer to him, didn’t splatter a fair few splattering of blood.
This book felt more like a prologue, it was almost a one shot, and in fact that makes it a bit of a relief compared to the majority of DCNu #1’s cliff hangers. There’s nothing particularly deep, to commandeer a line from Metal Gear Solid, Slade is just an old killer hired to do some wet work (Solid Snake and Lovetap share quite a few traits). I love that he’s old. There needs to me more older protagonists. I can think of very few.
It’s a fairly neat story but in a way that very much reflects Slade’s character; he is cold and calculating. Throughout the issue we are introduced to his new team. They are a bunch of yuppies, still arguing over their team name, how they’re going to brand themselves. They bicker among themselves and give Lovetap ‘cute’ nicknames (Okay, you might have worked out ‘Lovetap’ made me laugh). Slade gets on with it and when the job is done he blows their fucking brains all over the wall. There’s no cutesy back and forth here. This is the 90s. Deathstroke is pre-Buffyverse and he’s letting us know it.
Kyle Higgins’ script looks simply functional at first, but there are hidden depths to it. Joe Bennett’s pencils are great, especially his faces. Jason Wright’s colours bring the whole thing together with muted tones and plenty of shadows.
On first reading I felt I enjoyed it but it’s only now I look back on it again can I really appreciate why.
Loved this. I love the flow of her internal and external dialogue. I love that even though she isn’t in a wheelchair anymore, the specter of that incident is something she lives with and appreciates. I really hope it delves deeper into ideas of embodiment and disability. I think Gail Simone did a fantastic job for an opening issue. As someone who knows the Oracle very slightly (of course I’ve read The Killing Joke) this was a perfect entry point to the character. Barbara Gordon feels young.
Ardian Syaf’s art is great. I think it really captures people’s expressions and the movement feels dynamic and coherent. I’ll be keeping up with this.
