The Forbidden Planet International Blog Log

My turn, as a lapsed superhero fan and convoluted continuity hater, to have a go at the new DC Universe titles…

As I wrote a week back, after my hmmm reaction to Justice League #1, the whole idea of completely reworking the DC Universe, hopefully making it work for new readers and lapsed readers like myself is rather appealing.

But I’m very aware that I’m perhaps not the ideal new reader for DC and will be naturally predisposed to veer to the slightly more unusual titles like Men Of War, OMAC etc than I am the more out and out superhero stuff like Green Arrow, Hawk & Dove, JLI. But I shall try to keep that open mind going throughout. Likewise, I’m not going to go into too much depth, as we’ve a veritable plethora of guest reviewers doing a fine job of covering the titles for us.

In descending order of liking them then……

O.M.A.C. #1

Story and Art by Keith Giffen and Dan DiDio

DC Comics

Well, this is weird. Really weird. But good weird. At least good weird for me. No idea how good weird for DC this will be.

In some ways it’s obvious; Keith Giffen is a brilliant exponent of a very Kirby look, so giving him Jack Kirby’s One Man Army Corp – essentially a cosmic futuristic Captain America – made absolute sense in one way, and of course it looks and feels like a Kirby tribute book. But in many ways it’s a huge surprise – I didn’t expect one of the new DC 52 to look like a modern version of a Kirby cosmic wrestling match.

It was, after seeing some of the previews, one of the comics I was really looking forward to in this first week of DC’s new 52. But I can’t see this going down too well with the fans. Or maybe, just maybe, this is exactly the sort of left-field, let’s try anything and see what works sort of thinking we’re getting from the new DC now? If that’s the case i can only approve, as the 20 pages of O.M.A.C. are pretty much the best cosmic battle scene I’ve seen for a long, long time. It’s the sort of thing Paul Pope does so well, but Giffen is on such great form here channelling Kirby for the modern day..

What happens in the issue? Very little to be honest. O.M.A.C. turns up, controlled, or at least guided by some internal voice, and proceeds to beat seven shades of something out of everything in his way. For some, as yet unknown reason, we’re in the base of The Cadmus Project, with a plethora of Kirby style bad guys in the big guys way. Big fights, weird villains, lots of Kirby style action.

(Fight, fight, fight, fighty, fight. Great stuff from O.M.A.C. by DiDio and Giffen)

And then back to Kevin. Last thing he knew he was in the men’s room. Now he can’t remember what happened and something called Brother Eye is phoning him up telling him he should call his girlfriend as she’ll be worried. The next issue box has the line “things get really weird”. Personally, I can’t wait.

OMAC was ridiculously over the top, absolutely mad, full of one big, beautiful fight scene, answered very few of the questions the events posed, but it was also a great explosion of kinetic Giffen art propelling the story along to God knows where. Part of me thinks this may be brilliant, part of me thinks it’s just too weird to succeed. A big part of me suspects anything I actually enjoy with this new DC 52 is doomed to fail when it comes to the superhero target audience. And there’s a sneaky little voice that questions whether something like this, maybe, just maybe, will find a new audience willing to give it a try?

But whatever happens, whatever the result, I’ll be here for issue 2, just to see what the hell Giffen and DiDio have planned.

Stormwatch #1

By Paul Cornell and Miguel Sepulveda

DC Comics

(See Mark’s review of Stormwatch as well)

Right, here’s the one I was possible most hopeful for, and the most worried for. I loved Warren Ellis’ Stormwatch, and its subsequent shift into The Authority. But before Ellis? No, doesn’t exist for me. After Ellis came Mark Millar’s run. Which started off great, but swiftly went downhill. Blame editorial interference or artists or Millar’s writing recycling itself. And after that – again, those comics after don’t really exist for me. But those few volumes of Ellis written Stormwatch and the first two volumes of The Authority are great superhero books, practically defining the concept of widescreen superheroes – beautifully cinematic, action packed, lots of big, big things and punchy, quipy dialogue. And it’s so, so easy to get wrong.

But Paul Cornell, on the basis of this new issue 1 hasn’t got it wrong. In fact, he might have gotten it a little too right. Because this feels like a good (but not great) issue of The Authority. Exactly like it. It’s Cornell doing widescreen, very much slotting into the mold we expect from Stormwatch, with a big bad somewhere in the moon threatening the Earth. So I’m a touch worried that my enjoyment of it may just be because it feels somewhat like a very good cover version of a favourite song.

Cornell does enough to fill us in on Stormwatch; global protectors, been around a long time, secret, hidden from the emergent superheroes. And introduces us to the cast, giving enough information without overdoing the exposition, and setting things up for the future. It’s a far better and more convincing introduction to the team idea than Johns and Lee managed in Justice League.

(The good and the bad… nice quippy dialogue, good facial expressions in panels 1 & 2, but by panel 4 it’s looking bland and badly drawn and those PS effects – everywhere!)

Artist Sepulveda I’m not really that keen on. It’s okay. Overly flashy, too many of those crash, bang,whallop photoshop effects floating around, when what might have been nice was a little more concentration on the basics they’re doing the best to hide. Not ugly, but not great.

I have no idea how this fits into the new timeline, nor do I particularly care – one of the most interesting things to me is that this new DC can, if it wants (and I rather want it to) play fast and loose with the continuity. So right now I don’t care that Martian Manhunter is in the Justice League and Stormwatch, I don’t care that the footage of Superman is of his Justice League costume, not the jeans and boots of Action Comics. Right now, it’s just about making the story work. And Stormwatch is off to a good start.

Green Arrow #1

By J.T. Krul, Dan Jurgens and George Perez

DC Comics

My ex Nostalgia & Comics buddy Rich Nunn loves Green Arrow. I don’t know much about the character apart from the Neal Adams classic Green Arrow/ Green lantern stories and his appearances in the Morrison written JLA of old. Now Rich and I have vastly different takes on what makes a good comic, but he hated Green Arrow, and I’m with him all the way.

It’s just a pedestrian, by the numbers, superhero comic. Nothing of import happens, nothing makes it stand out as special. Ollie Queen turns up, has a virtual board meeting that’s obviously meant to set up something nasty in Queen Industries’ future and then sets about rounding up a few pretty pathetic second rate Parisian supervillains with the help of his new back up team of techys and weapons designers.

This would be a bad, boring comic anytime, but as the first issue of this new series, the first sighting of Oli Queen in the new DC Universe, it’s awful. A mediocre plot, terrible characterisation, awful villains, and the art is straight out of the 90s and just looks flat, ridiculous and dull. How George Perez had anything to do with this I just cannot see.

I was expecting to hate one of these new DC comics. Green Arrow wasn’t it. Avoid this. If all you want in a comic is a fight scene, go read O.M.A.C. – it’s got better artwork, the extended fight scene has more dynamism than Green Arrow could dream of, and it’s just fun, whereas this is just depressingly bad.