Yay the first month of DC madness is over! Now we can all watch as sales plummet for books that no one gave a shit about and the indie market can finally start to grow again since the DC overload has finally set in. You’ll be getting two updates today as I’ve actually sat down and wasted a lot of time reading DC books instead of other more enjoyable stories. Here’s the first of the day.
Nightwing #1
Did you ever read Nightwing before they cancelled it and made Dick Batman? Well this is the exact book they cancelled due to low sales and small fan base. I have to say it’s one of the more disappointing re-launches as they seem to have learned nothing from the previously failed Nightwing. At least they kept him in Gotham, but they instantly pulled a Batman on him and brought up his parents deaths. Eddy Barrows art on the book is some of his best, but I don’t see that being enough to save the book. The villain of the story is dressed like Draken from Marvel and even has the same claws minus the fact that his are removable. I honestly won’t be reading this book ever again, any interesting aspects added to Dick in his time as Batman have been completely wiped away in favor of returning him back to Nightwing.
Score – Pass, they messed up Nightwing the way they used to mess up Supergirl which is really sad.
Legion of Superheroes#1
The only interesting aspect that writer Paul Levitz was able to add to the Legion on his fifth or sixth crack at the book, was making them more of a military unit (which is a very popular theme in the new DCnU!). Too bad everything else that was wrong with the Legion is still in the book:Uninteresting characters, too many characters, no visible plot line in sight due to fact that every character has to talk for an entire page and the biggest problem… it’s in the future of the DCnU which basically ruins the current continuum. None of these characters are like-able or even come across as characters because they all share the same voice and there is noway to get a feel for any of them due to the short dialog chunks. If they wanted to fix this they should have cut the team down to five and then maybe,just maybe it would be interesting. I can’t really say that the art was good,it was passable, but due to the clutter on the pages and the shitty costume designs I wouldn’t say it’s good.
Score – Pass, if it doesn’t get cancelled right away it’s due to long time Legion fans but it should get cancelled.
DC Universe Presents:Deadman #1
This book was decent, it’s a bit rough around the edges and everyone is correct in calling it Quantum Leap starring Deadman. That’s essentially what this is, but with a bit of a twist as Deadman is jumping into people’s lives and he has no idea what he’s doing and if he’s even making a difference. The storytelling is a bit choppy which is unusual from Paul Jenkins, but it jumps around from past to present to past to present which makes sense when explained. When you’re reading it the changes are very abrupt and keep you from becoming emerged in the story. The art was really good from Bernard Chang and I think that this book has some potential to be really good and it has a new and fresh feel that a lot of the other launch titles don’t have. Personally this book is a keeper so I’ll definitely be back for the second issue.
Score – Buy
Blue Beetle #1
This book is a bit strange as it mixes part of the last Blue Beetle series with a new lore or at least explained lore for BB. I personally liked the new BB lore of the scarabs being sent to new worlds so that the Beetle’s masters can go Galactus on the planet. I liked that they kept Jamie as the Blue Beetle, but I don’t like how they basically told the exact same story as the last series. I mean without the new lore added this was like reading that issue again which I did not like. Still, writer Tony Bedard did a good job with the rest of the book and I like the new element added enough to come back to the book. If it just regurgitate the last series again then I’m not sure this book will have much to offer outside of the new planet dominator aspect. Hopefully the characters dialog gets better in the next issue, because right now I could barely stand to read it. All in all though I’ll be back for the second issue and really like that there are two intergalactic Corps’in the DCnU.
Score – Buy, but if it doesn’t pull out some new tricks it could fall into the drop it category.
Captain Atom #1
Hey another JT Krul book that’s not any good. Seriously why do people like this guy’s writing? Krul took Captain Atom and made him Dr. Manhattan from Watchmen…without the doctorate or intelligence. That’s all this is and it further solidifies that Captain Atom is a shitty character that needs to be put to rest until someone can actually do something interesting with him. Freddie Williams II’s style is interesting, but no a good match for this type of story. Also the issue really seems stretched out and I’m going to go ahead and blame the writer for that one having read enough of his work. Every scene in which Atom is out “doing work” suddenly becomes three panel pages which give Williams less work to do. I don’t know if this was an adjustment made so that they could reach their three issue deadline imposed by DC, or just bad storytelling. Either way the result is a quick read with very little substance.
Score – Pass, I’ll never pick up this book again.
Birds of Prey #1
Finally this book is interesting! For all you Gail Simone fans you can keep her runs on the book because I never found it interesting or even remotely praiseworthy. This new series puts the team in a new direction and adds a real sense of danger to the team. I could have done without the Babs cameo as it just came across as fan service and made me cringe reading it. Otherwise Swierczynski manages to take this concept to a new level by adding a spy-thriller aspect to it that just happens to be set in the superhero world. He also makes both female leads strong, powerful self-reliant woman that both get to wear pants! Seriously it makes their characters and the action much more believable by putting pants on them. There was a damsel in distress for the book that was of course male, but it worked due to his line of work. Really the disposable character could have been either gender, and it wouldn’t have matter. Jesus Saiz’s art has grown a lot from his days of drawing Checkmate and there couldn’t have been a better choice for the book. I’ve always wanted to like BOP due to the characters and usually the artists on the title, but never could get into the cheesy story or the poor writing. This new series though instantly hooked me and has to be one of the best I’ve read for the reboot thus far.
Score – Buy the damn thing!
Well there you have it, week three is done and I actually liked some titles. Now the questions becomes did DC save the best for last with week four? Since I’ve already read some of them I’ll tell you right now… no they did not, but find out why on the next installment of this sales gimmick bonanza.