Dc’s new 52 has been a shockingly successful experiment in my opinion at least after this first month. If you’re like me you have to pick and choose what comics you get each week . We all know Superman , Batman , Wonder Woman and Green Lantern are going to sell and the reboot has injected new life into each of those respective books. However there have been a few Comics and characters that belong at the top of your pull list along with the aforementioned Superheroes. I wanted to highlight a few of those titles below and give props to the creative teams that are making me giddy with excitement for issue #2.
Batwoman #1
Written by : J.H. Williams III & W. Haden Blackman
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Art by: J.H. Williams III
Let me start by saying this was one of the books I was most excited about but also most worried about. Over a year ago Detective Comics handed itself over to writer Greg Rucka and artist J.H. Williams while Bruce Wayne was Traveling through time with identity issues . This lead to an amazing run on Detective Comics that helped set the tone and character for Batwoman rebooting with issue #1 . After much delay and a change in writers ( Greg Rucka left and handed over shared writing duties ) Batwoman is back again in a issue #1 and it is just as spectacular as it was a year ago.
Immediately J.H. Williams’ Art and Layouts will knock your socks off. He uses a painterly style with Batwoman and pencils and inks for her alter ego Kate Kane . The Layouts themselves are some of the most creative Ive ever seen . You can tell every panel is thought out and you could spend an hour on each page easily making this one of the most beautiful titles of the relaunch. Further more I’m impressed with the ease at which our writing team is able to drop you right into the story and still inform you of the characters interactions and back story . The plot is great, and the antagonists are perfectly creepy. A well timed argument towards the end of the issue catches you up on anything you may have missed over a year ago while also continuing to push the story forward with ease. This book is amazing and is firing on all cylinders and deserves your attention.
Animal Man #1
Writer: Jeff Lemire
Artist: Travel Foreman and Dan Green
Jeff Lemire uses a very ingenious way to bring us into the story, and catch us up on all things Animal Man by having us read an interview featuring our title character on the first page. What follows is a double page spread showing Buddy Baker settling into his new life as Father and family man. This is a very grounded book which is great for building tension in a book where no one feels “safe” . Buddy however has an itch to go back out on Patrol as Animal Man and things go from bad to worse by the end of the issue. The art is greatly detailed with nice muted colors and a dream sequence with which the artist uses ink wash with pops of red to really create a sense of anguish and dread. However its the cliff hanger at the end involving his daughter Maxine , who has a unique take on her fathers power that has me biting at my nails to check out the next issue.
Swamp Thing #1
Writer : Scott Snyder
Artist : Yanick Paquette
Scott Snyder, who has been on a roll recently with Batman and Detective Comics now flexes his writing muscles on the new Swamp Thing reboot. Right off the bat we are introduced to a future Metropolis with Superman noticing Dead birds falling from the sky and then we are quickly sent to the Bat cave where we see Batman puzzled as his pet bats scatter and fall all around him. Scott Snyder quickly chooses to bring us into Alec Hollands life as he is now working in construction giving up his life’s work as a scientist in the process. For fans wanting to get a taste of what Superman will look and sound like after he’s grown out of his T shirt and jeans phase , look no further. Superman and Alec Holland share a great moment together in the opening pages that touches on how important of a character he is to the DC Universe now. I especially like the stern and direct approach Alec takes with Superman . Also having Alec remember all of Swamp Things memories from his long storied past is a nice way to show us that there is going to be a symbiotic relationship again between the two characters in the near future.
Yanick Paquette does amazing things with foliage and dead animals in this book . Necks get twisted , creepy bugs fly into ears, and people die in horrible ways , this by no means is kid stuff. After this first issue I’m convinced he was the perfect choice for art duties. The immediate threat as gruesome and shocking as it is , borrows a bit from The Happening . Instead of their being creepy wind , we get creepy wind with an actual disgusting monster. Scott however manages to inject enough intrigue and despair at the end of the issue with Swamp Thing coming back to claim his host. I am counting the days for the next issue to see how all of these story threads play out.
Mike DeVivo
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