Well it's the final week of the DC relaunch. Guess that means that after this week, I'm out of the job. Oh well. In the mean time, lets look at the last week of titles.
All-Star Western: This book is a Jonah Hex story. It has Hex working with Arkham of the old west Gotham city. Yes, that guy is an elder of the man who built Arkham in the present. This story was a gem. The art style was dirty, rough, and tough. But for the western story, I would not have had the art any other way. This is Hex writing at its best, or at least at a better point then it has for a long while. Hex is the cowboy we all grew up hearing about. A take no shit, guns and fists first man who never runs from evil. Arkham is your nerdy everyman. Arkham always stays away from fights and tries to do his battles with the mind, both his and others. These two really play off each other well and the mystery really draws you in. The only thing about this book that might draw you out is the prince. This is a 3.99 book, not a 2.99 book. At least here in the USA.
Overall: Amazing book.
Aquaman: Ok. Time for the truth. I, like so many others, thought of Aquaman as a joke. I mean, how can we not? His costume is silly, more so when you remember he is in the deep BLUE sea, his powers (for a long while) were underwater breathing and fish-pathy. I say for a while since it was not long ago that the powers that be added near invinciblity and super strength which makes sence when you think about the depths he dives to freely. And do not even get me started on the whole "Aqua-mullet" phase of his life. All in all, I went into this book thinking 'oh yay. a book about the fish guy'. Holy crap I was shocked. This book is a laugh riot, and in a very good way. This book takes the forth wall, drowns it, then buries under the rock. There are so many good gags that, and you might hate me for this, I am not going to share any of them with you. I want this book to keep coming out and to do that I would need people to buy it. Trust me when I say that Aquaman is very much worth your time.
Overall: Awesome art and funny storyline. That screams must read to me.
Batman: The Dark Knight: Oh goodie. Batman book 4 of the relaunch. I forgot that bruce wayne can clone himself and be everywhere in Gotham at the same time. Ok ok, the book. The art style is good. It is the style I like but at the same time, it seems to not make Gotham as dark as it could be. The first half of the book talks about fear and how both Bruce and Batman can never give into it. It is a fine speach and all, but the story really kicks off in the party afterwords. There is the normal nobodys but then there is a girl who screams 'antagonist' from the get go. The last few pages has a huge break out at Arkham with a bunch of no names. Serious, I only knew a few of these guys. Batman comes to the scene and one panel beats them all. Bull. A fight with so many so called high level foes should take more then one panel to knock out. Anyway, the book ends with a big head shake and sigh. Two-Face seemed to get on some of Banes Venom and is now calling himself One Face. Ok, the whole reason people called him Two face was his face was scared half and half. "One Face" still has that scared face. So to me, that makes him still TWO FACE! Anyway, the book is a bit slow at first then it shifts into high gear and shoots off for the last few pages. Not bad, but it needs to find a better pace.
Overall: A good batman book, but if you only want one batman, try another first.
Blackhawks: A group of ace piolets from WWII all from different countries but with the same goal in mind: Freedom and Peace. That is the Blackhawks. A group of UN-mercenaries who are in a secret base in the middle of no where who go out on missions to save people. Not the same. Now this new team to carry the Blackhawk name is not a bad team. It is very well written for the most part and the art is pretty good. But I do admit that it feels different from what I remember. The teammembers do play off each other very well and are fun to read. The story does set up a much larger plot that is not boring at all. I mean the only real negative I saw was Zinda Blake AKA Lady Blackhawk (A girl who was on the first Blackhawk team until she was misplaced in time) was no where to be found. Other then that, it was not that bad.
Overall: Not bad at all, but something is missing. No idea what.
The Flash: There is no backstory in this book. We get the Flash story started fast. This story focuses on everyones favorite flash Barry Allen. Keystone City knows him in both guises and that saves a lot of backstory we got back in Flash Point. The story here keeps on moving at a brisk pace and never once slows down. And that is awesome. I am reading a book about a speedster. I do not want to take time to slow down and wonder. To me, this book hits the mark. They have all the Keystone City characters down packed and gives us a good opening story that I am sure will keep people reading.
Overall: If you even kinda like the Flash, this book will be worth picking up.
The Fury of Firestorm: Another Gail Simone book? Awesome! Co-written by Ethan Van Sciver. Oh boy. I had no idea who Ethan was going into this book. I just thought that this was going to be another smash hit by Gail Simone. Now when you read the book, you can very easily tell who wrote what. The villains are so Gail Simone. They are deadly and fun to read at the same time. The other characters, well. Ronnie and Jason are the jock and nerd steriotype. Yeah, that's about it. While I am happy they brought back Jasons girlfriend (who was killed off back in Blackest Night) they seem to have killed off Prof. Martin Stein, the guy who made Firestorm back in the day. Not only that, but they seemed to have changed how Firestorms works as a whole. That is kinda annoying. The art was cool though. How the Firestorm character was drawn was always fun to look at.
Overall: Not Gail's best work, but there was a co-writer this time. It shows.
Green Lantern: New Guardians: First page of the book shows the lanterns dead and the Oa'ens about dead as well. That made me happy. I hate then Oa'ens. Little blue jerks who never learn anything ever. But this was all, I want to say at least 3 years ago DC time. Anyway, the flashback ends with Kyle Ranger, the last of the Earth lanterns, getting his ring. So just in case you missed it, we now have 3 Green Lantern books, each with different stories and lanterns. Ok, that's kinda cool. The only problem with this book is that it does not really go anywhere. I mean it does set up for a larger story, but by the time that happens, the book is over. I think they just spent too much time on the flash back, reminding us all who Kyle was.
Overall: A good story and has good art.
I, Vampire: My word I was bored here. Back in August I want to Baltimore Comic con. There I was in a panel with DC writers. One of them was the guy who wrote I,Vampire. He said it was a love story and not a superhero epic. Well he was right, kinda. It was a love story, but the kind you find in a romance novel. Here, let me give you how the dialog works: Guy says "I want to cure you". Girl replys "I do not wish to be cured". Repete for about 20 pages. I got nothing out of this book. The art was ok, but very brown and black. If I did not know better, I would almost swear they were trying to hide the characters in this book.
Overall: A romance novel who grew up into a DC comic.
Justice League Dark: A JL with all magic based heroes. I kinda liked this story. It introduces us to many different and varried characters from the get go. It does not try to put together the league at all, just shows the different soon to be league members doing what they can to fight off their own magical problems. And it is because of this that I liked the book. There were many plots and they all worked well. You did not need to go into a huge backstory right away on anyone because that is going to be the point of the book. All you needed to know was shit was happening and it needed to be stopped. The art was good, but nothing super save for a few above awesome pages.
Overall: I look forward to finding out more and more about this League.
The Savage Hawkman: Let's look at the art. It is very painted, but not at the same level as Batwing was WAY back in week 02. It looks cool and the monster in this book is just awesome. Now the story is kinda blah. There was nothing here to really help get me into Hawkman. The story focuses around Hawkmans Nth metal. That was the stuff that made him fly and gave him strength. Well now it seems to be doing more. The whole issue I just felt bored. Maybe it has to do with the fact that I never really got into anything Hawkman in the past. Still, I did not think it was that great.
Overall: Cool artwork but the story is lacking, to me at least.
Superman: Ok. Seriously. If you only wanted ONE book from the relaunch, I would suggest this one. The story itself is nothing new. Superman is fighting a pair of masked nobodies when a monster made of fire attacks. I know this sounds like nothing special, but the fire monster fight does NOT end of a cliff hanger like every other book in the relaunch. Superman beats the fire monster and the book ends with, well, an ending. That is the reason why I suggest this book. It has an ending. I feel great knowing I do not NEED to pick up the next book to get an ending to a story that might be blah. Very good job Superman. It was indeed a job for you.
Overall: Nothing fancy, but a book that has an ending is just super.
Teen Titans: Ok. Minor gripe. We get to see 7 teen heroes on the cover. Ok fine. In the book, we really only see 4 of the heroes. Then why incude the other 3 on the cover? And those were the 3 I knew nothing about. Geez. Oh well. At least the 4 heroes they do show are on the cover front and center while the other 3 were pushed back. That gripe aside, I really enjoyed this book. It shows the Tim Drake AKA Robin 3 AKA Red Robin (I now want a burger) setting up the titans in the new DCU when he learns that teenage superheroes are starting to become more of an issue then a help. I liked that. It gives us a solid reason why there needs to be the Titans and the book starts to work on that. Tim Drake is very smart and I do like him as the leader and now new founder of the Titans. I am going to miss Cyborg being on the team though. Oh well.
Overall: The characters are off to a great start.
Voodoo: This was another book I went into really wonding who Voodoo was. In the one book, the writers tell us everything. And I do mean everything. They tell us who Voodoo is, her mission, her powers, her personality, and her backstory. I was looking forward to slowly finding out everything about her, not having it all dumped on me at once. Sure there is still more I do not know, but just about all my questions were answered right away. I don't really care anymore about the character I knew for all of 20 or so pages. Pasing, writers. Just a bit more and she would have been awesome. I know cause I know all about her. You told me. I also did not like the art too much. It is hard to discribe it, but the panels just felt huge. Like the book itself was bigger. It is not by the way, just the art made it feel that way.
Overall: Well if you wondered about this new character VooDoo, this one issue tells all.
And that is all 51 relaunch titles.
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Wait, you mean I missed one? Oh yeah, I never did Justice League way back for Week 01. Huh. Well it is too late to preview it, so lets review it. Come back next week when I review the issue that started off the relaunch, Justice League.
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