In other news, today I am going to celebrate my blog's glorious return from silence and obscurity by actually delivering on one of the subjects which this blog was intended to cover. Namely, I will discussing a few of the comics I've picked up in recent weeks.
Of course, the biggest story in the comics industry at the moment is the recent reboot of DC Comics ENTIRE LINE of comics (new Superman, Batman, Green Lantern, etc. comics). This is a pretty big deal for comics readers and non-readers alike, since this move was intended both as a way to reenergize the line for long-time fans and to open things up for curious would-be readers. I've been reading Marvel comics pretty much exclusively since I started reading comics in April (especially Thor comics and some Spider-Man and Avengers stuff), but this event seemed like an appropriate opportunity to dive into another line of comics and see if DC had anything I would appreciate. Here's what I've come up with so far.
Action Comics #1 -- Written by Grant Morrison; Art by Rags Morales and Rick Bryant
Now, for one thing, the reboot has been such a huge deal for long-time readers because of comics like Action Comics, which, before the reboot, was one of the longest continuous running series EVER. Before the line relaunched a few weeks ago, Action Comics was well into the 900's! As you can tell, Action Comics is a Superman title, so having a relaunch of the series that introduced one of the most seminal and recognizable of all super-heroes is a fairly big deal. What is fantastic about this comic, however, is that the creative team didn't just pop out rehashed origin book. We're all familiar in some degree with Superman's origin story, especially if anybody has watched about 3 seconds of Smallville. So instead of saying, "Hey, this is where Superman came from, as if you didn't already know." Morrison et al actually gave the reader enough credit to assume he/she could INFER any changes to that origin story by inserting those types of changes in this story about Superman before he was the complete Superman we're all most familiar with. On that note, this story is about Superman's early career as a super-hero concerned more with social equality and the equal distribution of justice to rich and poor alike than he is about stopping giant meteors from crashing into the planet. So we have a bit of motivation for the character, but I think the greatest thing about this comic is that it promises serious growth for the character. We all know what Superman will be like some day, but in this series, we get to watch him become the hero we know. At this point, the best the young hero can do is leap tall buildings and show some exceptional levels of strength. Yet, in the comic, when he is required to try to stop a runaway train, he can't quite accomplish it. Now this may be more of my bias about the complete Superman, but I was never really interested in him before because he was basically a god. It's nearly impossible to defeat him. But this Superman gets overwhelmed by a train. I don't know, but this seems like a character that I want to see developed. Definitely a recommended comic for anyone interested.
Alright, well that was a ludicrously long review of a single comic, so for the rest, I'll just give quick blurbs. Send me a message if you'd like a more complete review of any of them and I might write them up as a separate post. Thanks for reading.
Batgirl #1 -- Written by Gail Simone; Art by Adrian Syaf and Vicente Cifuentes
There were elements of this book that I liked, but there's a lot of history to this character that sort of gets brushed under the rug. Good art, but the dialogue and the captions were confusing at times.
Batman and Robin #1 -- Written by Peter J. Tomasi; Art by Patrick Gleason and Mick Gray
This was definitely one of my favorite books so far. Tomasi is taking Batman in a new direction concerning his memorialization of his parents, but there is still a lot of darkness in the book, especially with Robin, who is Bruce Wayne's son, Damian, in this comic. Damian has grown up under the tutelage of a man basically obsessed with death and justice, so one could understand that he would have a very dark, pragmatic outlook on life. On top of that, his dialogue makes him out to be a total wise-a**, which is pretty awesome. Great, great book with very good art and dialogue.
Batwoman #1 -- Written by J.H. Williams III and W. Haden Blackman; Art and cover by J.H. Williams III
This book honestly let me down a bit. The cover art and previews of the first few pages I had seen of the book in comics blogs looked really promising as far the art goes, but the artists sort of seemed to give up after a while and it dropped off. The dialogue was pretty good, but there were at least three scenes where Batwoman and her sidekick Plebe were changing into or out of their costumes, thus yielding several panels of side-boob. Not really what I'm looking for, thanks. As for the story, the villain looks really interesting, but I don't think it'll be enough to get more of my money.
Swamp Thing #1 -- Written by Scott Snyder; Art and cover by Yanick Paquette
Alright, that's all for today, kiddies. For more info on these comics and the rest of the new DC Comics line, go to the DC Comics website. For better informed reviews of some of these comics and general comics culture related news, go to ComicsAlliance.
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