DC Relaunch, Month One: D's reactions

Well, I'll try and get the down-note out of my system first. The main thing I wanted to see from this relaunch was something roughly approximating Teen Titans. Most notably Wolfman/Perez, but many of the runs have the same idea to the team. A traditional superhero book, with darker elements, but also the ability to have light and not drown in angst. That's a concept that's still strong today, and could do well for hooking new members into the DC Universe, and did influence my buying choices.

However, I don't think there's a book that really meets that criteria. Teen Titans seems too dark for it, thanks to NOWHERE, and rebooting Cassie as a thief. Perhaps the closest in month one might be Justice League International, which I considered buying. However, what I heard about some team members, specifically Rocket Red and August General, did not reassure me. My own nation supposedly being represented by a vapid blond was what finally completely pushed me away from it. Like I said, if someone wants me to pick this up, then I will, but that's for review. Not for pleasure.

Anyway, actual reviews

Supergirl
Perhaps the most traditional superhero title I picked up in month one. I liked this book, and felt it stood up pretty nicely for the most part. The action's a little spread out to act as a counterpoint for Kara's reflection on what happened to her, a technique that works pretty nicely. The art's good, and surprisingly non-cheesecake, tending to focus more on Supergirl as Super rather than specifically feminine. By DC norms, I'd say she's pretty normally proportioned.

However, given that costume... well, there were two things I found off with the issue. Neither were gamebreakers for me, not by a long shot, but these two were where I felt the comic fell down a little.

1; We're given a focus on Supergirl's origin on Krypton, told that she can remember stuff from her home planet. That's good, an interesting angle.... except that nothing of her home planet is really shown here. I didn't expect lengthy flashbacks, they might've slowed the book down even further, but something, perhaps a panel or two, would have been appreciated.

2; The costume. It's not the worst, not by a longshot, but yeah... why does a Kryptonian Ceremonial Costume require you not to wear pants? I get the strong impression the artist was not consulted on the design, and is actively trying to work around it. He certainly seems to avoid shots of Kara that go below the waist.  But there're still one or two, and yeah. In some ways, the minimal nature of it makes the fanservice here feel more abnormal and mildly annoying.

But yeah, that wasn't that major an issue, and I'd happily recommend it. Especially if you pick up both issues one and two; a more complete story might be helpful here.

Green Lantern, New Guardians
Ugh. I do want to recommend this book; the concept looks interesting, issue one wasn't disastrously mishandled, and the solicits for the next three issues look highly promising. However, this first issue was slow, slow, slow, primarily due to exposition. I strongly suspect that this book was writen around the cliffhanger, but even given that, there're issues

1; Timeline. The origin of Kyle Rayner is not dated. Not even a 'some years ago'. This is a bit of a fault, although what makes it worse is that the origin, extablishing that Kyle holds 'the last power ring' is not mentioned again. Not even in passing, by Kyle admitting that he was at one point the only Lantern, before the Corps rebuilt itself. As is, a new reader is likely to be confused if they're just reading this issue. I think there's going to be exposition on Kyle's past coming up in the next issues, but this could have been fixed in issue one, so I'm not giving it a pass on this.

2; Ok, I'm fine with us needing exposition on the other corps, and I'm glad that we got the team together in issue one. But was there anything stopping the writer showing the actual future New Guardian alongside the corps members who lost their rings? Yeah, we got that with Fatality, but that's 1/3, and we could've used some kind of grounding for the others as well.

*sigh* I still recommend this one, but fair warning, the first issue is slow and focused on exposition. This is one that old DCU vets might prefer to start on issue two.

Demon Knights
This book was... really cool. ;) The exposition was well handled, they introd setting, villian, most of the heroes, and a nice looking battle kicks off to celebrate the end of the issue. Art seemed well done to me, writing was cool, and I like the Arthurian theme.

So given that, I'll provide a little guessing as to something I think people got wrong. Warning, this one's a spoiler, so if you don't want to read, skip the next para. (though to my mind, it's a minor spoiler)

Everyone's assuming Xanadu is two-timing Jason with Etrigan, but I'm not so sure. Remember her line before hand? If you read her dialogue afterwards closely, comparing it to her words to Jason before, she seems to be acting more theatrically with Etrigan. Demons aren't known for co-opperation; could Xanadu be using seduction to play Etrigan?

Just an idea. Anyway, Demon Knights, wonderful book, if a little dark. If interested, pick it up.

Blackhawks
This one got a little battered by the critics, and I can see why. However, I liked it, and will try and defend it, at least a bit. ;)

The main flaw first, it's a little light on characterization. We get a few details on Lady Blackhawk, but that's about it. Plus... Nanocites? Seriously?

However, unlike, say, New Guardians, we have a fairly good action scene to kick this off, a little confusing, but dramatic, fun and cool. The team get along well, and for a military book, the focus on gore, grimness and hardware is pretty much non-existent, we've seen more of dramatic manoeuvres and acrobatics thus far.It's nice to see a team which don't immediately hate each other, and I honestly get the impression that we'll see a little more from the characters, establishing them better before too long.

If you're in the market for a fun action book, this, to my mind, is the one to get. I hope you give it a try. :)

Well, that's it for me. There was one more book I didn't review here, JL Dark, but that's... a hard one to review. I'll touch on it when we get to the second issue, for now, check out the preview of issue one. If you're interested, pick it up.

A Blog Begins...

Hello. Welcome to my review blog! I'm not exactly the first to do this, but... well, I'm one more person, and have my own perspective, which might hopefully give you an alternate way of looking at things

A little background on myself. I'm twenty, almost twenty one, and thus, grew up through the nineties, more or less. I've got expertise with video games, and movies to a lesser degree, but for now, my primary focus for now will probably best be comic books; specifically the new DC line. I've read a few older comics, including classic Marvel, and the Wolfman/Perez Teen Titans. I haven't followed modern books much before, but now, I've picked up a few of the new fifty two, and will be investigating new books in the upcoming months. A lot of people's focus has been on month one, but to my mind, it is going to be act two when a lot of these books are proven to be good or bad.

Coupled with that, I do disagree with quite a few other reviewers I've seen around the internet. To be honest, that was probably the inspiration for this blog. I'm going to try and focus on things that I am interested in, books that I feel I have something to talk about. However, if anyone is actually interested in what I have to say (shock horror) I'd be more than happy to take requests.

To start with, I'll put up my thoughts on the books I've picked up last month. All of them were interesting and, in my view, worth your attention.

Hopefully, I'll have my first review of month two up tomorrow. In the Emperor's Name!