Week number 2 of the New DC Universe begins without Justice League. Please tell me this book isn't late already?
Since Resurrection Man #1 was first release a few weeks ago, I'm not including it in the regular winners and losers review format.
Resurrection Man #1
I passed this up last month when it first came out. Then I hemmed and hawed for a couple weeks about whether I should get it or not. Finally my allegiance to Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning won out and I picked it up this week.
I picked up Animal Man #1 late and was grateful that I did. Resurrection Man didn't give me the same feeling. I know absolutely nothing about this character other than he's a 90s guy. The old Resurrection Man fans that I've spoken to were pretty happy with it and shocked by the twist to his powers at the end. I have no idea what that twist was however.
Mitch dies and comes back to life each time with a new power. When he comes back he has a job to do setting something right. Very Quantum Leap-ish. I can get in to that. Also, Heaven and Hell seem to be looking for him to claim his soul.
This was a fine comic, but it wasn't captivating enough to get me off the fence about buying #2.
In Fourth Place:
Red Lanterns #2
Week 2 of the DCnU begins with Red Lanterns #2. Any doubts I had about #1 were only magnified this issue. If you take the base of what the Red Lanterns are supposed to be (rage-blind killing machines) then the premise of these characters holding down their own book seems thin.
So what does writer Peter Milligan do? He introduces new lore into the Lantern mythos to, I believe, allow him to write this book. Since the Red Lanterns aren't deep enough on their own, Milligan introduces the ability of Atrocitus to, "increase the consciousness of one of my Red Lanterns." A deux ex machina to get more out of this story if I ever saw one.
Atrocitus doesn't know how he should go about inflicting Red justice on the universe. The issue is pretty much all Atrocitus' inner thoughts as he speaks to Krona, who's dead.
Ed Benes does more fantastic work on pencils including a couple sweet, if subtle, ass-shots. But Benes' art alone can't lift this book to higher than Fourth Place this week.
Third Place:
Supernatural: The Dogs of Edinburgh #1
Lets start with the art of Grant Bond. Some panels were really stylized and really cool. Cool enough to be considered for the Panel of the Week. Others unfortunately, were pretty rough. It seems Bond knows what he wants to do with his art, he just needs to do it on a consistent basis.
As for Brian Wood's story, some of it was pretty confusing. But I think that was on purpose. He wants the reader to be confused with Sam. This story takes place (I think) before the Supernatural TV series starts when Sam is still at Stanford. But if he gave up the demon-hunting lifestyle while there, why's he looking into the occult on a school trip to Scotland? Also, while some dialog is so spot-on you can hear Jared Padalecki's voice in your head, some just doesn't ring true to the character.
What's missing from this issue is any other Supernatural character. There's a mention of Dean, but that's it. For as interesting as Sam is on his own, its really the story of the brothers that makes Supernatural work.
This issue had its ups and downs but was entertaining enough (and I'm enough of a Supernatural fan) to keep buying whatever comics are created based on the show.
In Second Place:
Action Comics #2
Action Comics is a $3.99 book. It also has the standard amount of storytelling pages that a regular-size comic has. That, is a rip-off. There are 8 pages of "behind the scenes" commentary of issues 1 and 2 and some upcoming Krypton stuff at the end, but I would much rather spend the extra dollar to get 8 more pages of story.
As for the actual story, it wasn't as good as the inaugural issue. Action Comics #1 was an amazingly new, exciting story full of interesting reveals and characters. Action Comics #2 felt a little more pulled-back. That's not meant to be negative. It was a fine comic, and very entertaining but it left me with a feeling of "its over already?"
Along with the size/cost-ratio-let-down, the pencils are handled by not only Rags Morales, but Brent Anderson as well. Anderson's panels are adequate, but still clearly NOT Morales' when you come across those pages. What this says to me is that some things have changed, but its still the same old DC in the sense of "this guys behind on this book, get him some help." In the immortal words of Tom Keifer, "the more things change, the more they stay the same."
DC: either knock a buck off of my book or give me more story. Because what we've got here isn't cutting it.
A well-deserved First Place:
Animal Man #2
Cree-pee! That's the best way to describe Jeff Lemire and Travel Foreman's Animal Man. And its awesome. I'm so glad $oss talked me into trying out this book because its really been a highlight of the DCnU.
As the Baker family try to figure out why Maxine can raise dead animals, they also find out she can turn people INTO animals. Or at least their limbs. This also triggers some tattoo on Buddy's body. A tattoo of a map that leads to the Red.
Meanwhile, three hippos at the Zoo give birth to three creatures that eat the Zoo staff and take over their bodies.
Foreman's art, a lot of the time, looks sloppy. But its a particular kind of controlled sloppiness that makes it stand out and makes it really interesting.
One of the best of the DCnU so far.
Panel of the Week:
A perfect illustration of how creepy this book is. Even the stuffed animal dog Maxine is holding creeps me out.
-Gint
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