The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly review 1

With so many comic books coming out so fast right now Caine will be looking at different ways to review them - such as reviewing more than one per post.  Just so you know, we are less concerned about spoilers blogging at this speed (we are all ready a week behind), but if you still haven't read the first round of the new DC 52, there be some spoilers below.

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I have to say that when reading the comics that came out on the 7th, three of them truly did fit into the following categories:

THE GOOD:
Batgirl
Unless you've been living under a rock you've no doubt heard that Barbara Gordon (formerly ORACLE in the old DCU) is back to being Batgirl.  There have been no shortage of blogging, social media, and message board posts on the fact that Barbara (and many other characters) will be de-aged and given the use of her legs back.  Legs she'll need as she's once again BATGIRL!

Gail Simone (who was an advocate for Barbara being the only Batgirl in the DCnU from the beginning) and crew have done an excellent job!  This was a great read and a book that I'll be picking up.  There isn't a single fear that anything in her history was removed or severely altered, if that's what you were worried about you can throw a batarang at it because it's all there.  Yes, yes, that includes the Killing Joke and the loss of her legs.  Barbara simply had far less time without the use of them is all.  Was she ever actually Oracle?  They haven't said yet one way or another, and I doubt they will hope they don't for a while.  Dish it out slowly is what I say.  Her relationship with her father, a new room mate and friend and (more than likely) the Batman is out there too.

This is an action adventure comic book staring a relatively new person in a cape and cowl to make it even more interesting.   This was a fast paced read filled with kicks to the face, characters freezing up and making mistakes, leaving black rubber all over the street, and a new villain (or two) that one could sink their teeth into.

THE BAD:
StormWatch
You see a long time ago in a galaxy far away there were these six comic book creators who went to Marvel and said....then Jim Lee sold his imprint WildStorm back to DC and those books were never the same.  I kinda thought, what with Jim being a DC big wig these days, that those WildStorm titles returning to print would be good again.  I was wrong.

Dead wrong I'm afraid.  "There can be only one" kind of wrong in fact.  This book wasn't any good at all.  First of all it's not StormWatch as one might be led to believe - what with that name printed on the cover and all.  Confusing I know.  The book is actually a hybrid of StormWatch and The Authority but here's the thing: The Authority was created specifically to be the opposite of StormWatch.  How does it make sense to combine them into one book?  Won't half of the fans of each book be misled and ticked off to one degree?

This book is messy.  The plot jumps all over the place right out of the gate.  They begin introducing characters we've never seen before and have no vested interest in and leave us right where they leave us on Justice League.  The page posted is the last page of the comic, as if you couldn't see that coming.  I sure as hell Grifter is better than this.

THE UGLY:
Hawk & Dove
You see a long time ago in a galaxy far away there were these six comic book creators who went to Marvel and said....then Robert Liefeld got into some trouble, more than once.  Still, he works professional in comic books and I don't so you can't bee to hard on the guy right?  He's stated all over the place that he has been focused on turning in work on time for the last couple of years. He's tweeted art work and his thoughts on the industry.  His work seemed to be, to this blogger, looking more realistic and of better quality but like Nicholas Cage he seems to be phoning it in these days.

I could pick this apart but I don't think I need to.  It just doesn't look that good.  Not at all.  I know people call Liefeld "Polarizing" meaning everyone either loves or hates the guys work but it's ridiculous.  Early on, before they become zombies, the bad guys are dressed in suits that look just like SHIELD field agents.  When Hank "Hawk" Hall is out of uniform and talking to his father (like Barbara Gordon and Dick Grayson Hank has been de-aged), both characters look the same.  Who do they look like?  Robert Liefeld.  Funny enough it would seem that Hank Hall and Dawn Granger have suffered the fate that Barbara Gordon didn't: The Teen Titans have been seemingly erased from existence like a leak in the flux capacitor.

Final Thoughts
While I was writing this I was on twitter and a famous comic book writer gave me a thought regarding the DC Relaunch: "Execution is different on different books."  I'd say that hits the nail on the head right there.  H&D and StormWatch were not good examples of "new", "fresh", or "open" in order to attract new fans to what was undoubtedly an unsustainable business model of decreasing fan bases.  Both of them are steeped in character lore and relationships that have not yet been shown to us yet and may not for some time.  Or character relationships that weren't popular the first time around and are probably not well known to the masses.  Both of them are messy and all over the map story wise.  H&D is down right ugly and doesn't feel like anything close to what it was before, or even like it should be one of the "Young Justice" books it's being released under.


This bloggers hopes lie with Batwoman and Nightwing (as usual). 

~Caine

The New Logos

Today Pierre gives us part one of a series of articles where he examines what he thinks about the DESIGN of the new DC Relaunch, starting today with the new logos. In his article he asks that I submit my opinions in a separate post, but I am far to lazy thought it would be more fun to just chime in here. - Jim

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Last week  we got the first week of DCnU comics, and it seems that every one of their comics seems to be selling like hot cake ( or something like that),  And some are all actually good (OMAC was AWESOME!! Loved JLI, Batgirl and Swamp Thing). I could nitpick about how in Action Comics (everyone on that train should be dead) or how the only explanation we got for Barbara Gordon walking is that it was “a miracle”, but I won’t. All of them comics were good solid comics so far. The only one I didn’t like was Batwing. Not that it is a bad comic; I just did not like it.

But today, let’s look at some of the logo designs.

For the new logo designs, Many of them are pretty much uninspiring. Too many of them are done using an existing type,  but distorting it or adding a cool element behind it like a Bat or something. The best ones are the ones that they did not attempt to fix like “Superman” or “Swamp Thing”.



Jim: Yeah, I agree, that's a classic that echoes the feel that this comic has returned to it's 80's pre-vertigo feel. In many ways, this new Swamp Thing feels like something that could have come out 20 years ago, and I mean that in a good way. As a reader who hasn't looked at a Swamp Thing comic since the Alan Moore/Rick Veitch era, this logo feels like a Welcome Home doormat.

PIERRE: My favourite amongst the new logos that they “tried” to fix HAS to be “Omac”. Although I can’t help it but read it as “Qmac”.



Jim: As much as I enjoyed this comic, the logo has not quite grown on me. I tend to like technique (cutouts) but this design feels too busy to me what with the combined circuit board elements and gradient fills. One design I did like a lot was the new Batgirl logo:



JIM: This logo has a nice retro Broadway (or Fritz Lang Metropolis) feel to it that seems to promise us a story with more style and sophistication than your average sock 'em up superhero book - a promise that that so far has been unfulfilled IMHO. Still, the logo is very sleek and clean and fits the title better than the generic words coming at you type of logo that so many comics seem to favor. Like this one for Justice League International:



PIERRE: I understand that the design team must have been overwhelmed.  Heck I have been there in the past. I can imagine that any given month, they have a handful of new logos and stuff like that to come up with. And then someone decides they need 52 new logos and added that task to the workload of the design team with barely more resources than usual to pull it off.

It is not unusual for people in charge to decide on something,  without giving any thoughts as to who will have to roll up their sleeves and work up like crazy to make it happen,  and expecting them to pull it off,  even when what they demand is completely unreasonable. It takes about 3 seconds to decide, “Hey! Let’s have 52 new logos for our comics”. But making them 52 new logos takes A LOT more than 3 seconds.

I am sure that the “bosses” were generous enough to offer to allow some extra time for the design team. By extra time, what I mean is making sure that the studio is open late so they can stay late at night at the studio, or make sure that the studio is open during the week-end for the team to be able to come in and produce the extra work.  I can imagine their workload exploding and needing a lot of over time, and a lot of lack of sleep. So I can’t really blame them for cutting corners and not coming up with them new logos from scratch. And ultimately, I don’t think it will really matter in the BIG scheme of things.

JIM: Ha! Yeah, I have been involved in more than my fair share of such slapdash projects with companies I've worked with. so I can sympathize too. And while I can't say for certain that's what went on here, it seems likely given what we know about how quickly some of these creative teams for the new 52 were pulled together. On the flip side, giving the titles new logos in some cases helps underscore the newness of the books. (Though many of them feel less than new.)

PIERRE: Still, it feels like a wasted effort in some cases. I strongly doubt that anyone will refuse to purchase any of the new comics because it has an old logo.  In fact, up here in Canada, we  even bought comics when the logos didn't quite work as well as they did in English:




Have a great day!

- Pierre

Catman vs King Scarecrow

I've got folders of images from all sorts of projects that never made it past the initial first few pages. In some cases all I have is a cover. Here's one of my favorites from a project that was mostly based on a whim of mine to see Pierre draw more of his cool Jim Aparo looking Catman.

And while the story behind this cover will probably never see daylight, I still yearn to tell a few Catman stories using Pierre's Bob Morane style; some which might feature a few of the other Holyoke characters as well.



Which brings up a question I ponder from time to time:

Why do some of us want to create stories with public domain characters? 

Is it because we think using these characters will bring our stories some validity that an otherwise wholly newly created character might not? Or is it a desire to weave ourselves into the legacy of the character somehow? Or is it that we believe these characters are purer in some sense having escaped the ravages of shifting continuity over the decades?

For some of us, it could be a mixture of these reasons, or none of them at all, but whatever it is, siren call of Public Domain heroes definitely beckons...

With that, I'll leave you with today's Free Comic...

[ Catman 26 ]



Enjoy!

- Jim

Pierre vs The Justice League

Picking up from yesterday, Pierre gives us his thoughts on Justice League 1 and the readers reaction to this historical first issue of the DC Relaunch. Warning: He seems rather provoked by the whole affair. ;)

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Hi guys, I don’t know about you, but we had a crappy summer over here in Canada. It rained, rained, and when it finally stopped raining, it rained some more. I read in the paper not long ago how August was an historical record breaking month when it came to how much it rained over here.

So maybe the lack of sunshine is making me grumpier than usual. If so, I apologize. So finally, the DCnU is here, starting with Justice League #1.

(Editor's Note: Do you really want to see that cover again?)

 
So what did you think of that historical first issue?? (I will not even mention the new costumes, that will require a whole blog post on its own just for that.) But pretty much EVERYONE seems to agree; in pretty much every review you will read the following:

“Average”
“Underwhelming”
“Slow”
“Decompressed”

Editor’s Note 2: I disagree with this assessment, but Pierre seems to winding up for a tirade, so I’ll indulge him this time. I think by Everyone, he means all of Toronto or something. ;)

What drives me nut is how people who loved the comic try to convince others that those are a good thing. That it is how that comic was supposed to be. That it was supposed to be “average”. That it was supposed to be “slow” or “underwhelming”.

Really??

As an example, and she is far from alone in this, Heidi MacDonald from The Beat for whom I have nothing but the greatest respect mentioned in her review:

“So what to make of all this? More than ever I feel the conflict of knowing that this is not aimed at me. This is a somewhat uninspired introductory comic for readers 13-up.”

With all due respect, it is comments like this in reviews that are trying to defend the first issue of what is DC’s historical re-launch that drives me up the wall.

Why in the Pits of Hades would new “readers 13-up” even care about an “uninspired” comic? Who in their right mind would try to attract new readers with an “uninspired” comic? Wouldn’t you want to put out a GREAT comic for your first issue in your historic re-launch? Wouldn’t you want to put out a GREAT comic? The BEST comic you can possibly make, to attract new readers?

So far those defending the comic look like cheerleaders with a lot of enthusiasm, but no real arguments to support their defense or point of view. Now don’t get me wrong, it is not a bad comic, but it is not a good one either. It feels like a very formulaic paint by numbers type of comic.

Issue #1: Batman and GL meet. Big Superman surprise reveal at the end. (Although if we trust the cover, we already know that he will be in the League, so I fail to see the surprise here. Although WW, Aquaman and Flash fail to even make an appearance in this first issue, so maybe it is a surprise that we finally see another JL member in this first issue).

Issue #2: Superman joins them. Probably big Wonder Woman reveal at the end??

Issue #3: Wonder Woman joins them. Reveal new member at the end.

Issue #4 & 5: New character join in each issue until the BIG seven are together, then by the end of issue #5 big Darkseid reveal.

Issue #6: BIG showdown between the NEW Justice League and the forces of Apokolyps and its ruler and master, Darkseid. Of course the League will be victorious and Darkseid will flee back to Apokolips screaming, “We will meet again, Super-Friends!!” (oops, sorry, I got carried away) ;).

At least, I hope that it will only be 6 issues. If they drag this over 8 or 9 issues, I will pray the gods to be merciful and spare us such suffering. To get back to this first issue, I felt like I was reading an issue of the Brave and the Bold. Which is not a bad thing in itself, but this is NOT the B&B, this is the JUSTICE LEAGUE!! Is it so much to ask for a Justice League comic in what is called the Justice League??

Or even worse, when Batman and Green Lantern were acting like 12 year old children and Batman stole Green Lantern’s ring, I felt like I was reading issue #9 of All Star Batman and Robin once more.

 
I had to double check the cover to make sure that I had not purchased the next issue of ASB&R by mistake.I usually love Johns’ work, but here I can’t decide if he is trying to write like Brian Bendis, or if he is trying to emulate the beginning of the Ultimates by having a veeeerrrrrrrry slow build up introducing one new character every issue until the team faces off the EVIL Darkseid (guess I will root for Darkseid this time) ;). Heck the Ultimates was a hit at the time, so why not try to reproduce that? Right?

Either way, Damn that comic was decompressed. And that is NOT a good thing in my book. I guess I was used to see the opposite from Johns and was doubly surprised AND disappointed to see that he would kick off the DCnU and the new JL with such a slow start.

Didn’t they announce that that damnable “writing for the trade” crap was over?? That they no longer would be writing for the trade? I don’t think such an approach plays to Johns’ strength. It seems to showcase his weaknesses as a writer instead. But once again, maybe that is just me.

If you like Jim Lee’s work, you will like this issue. Although I could nitpick the art here and there, I won’t. No point really. Although I could not help but think that the artwork was, off somehow. Especially compared to Lee’s previous work on ASB&R or Batman: Hush, but I can’t put my finger on it right now.
Was Lee rushed?? Is it Williams that had to work with a broken hand somehow?? Is it the colorist that had to do the work while he was sick?? No idea, but something feels off somehow. But odds are that it is just me.

Still, despite what the naysayers might have to say, this looks like a hit, as far as sales are concerned. From what we understand so far, it seems that DC sold about 250 000 copies. And DC announced a second and third printing. Heck I had to go to 5 stores in my area until I found a store that had 3 copies of the comic left. So it seems that stores will not be left with stacks of unsold copies. Did stores underestimate the demand?? Did they order too few copies?? Maybe.

Although did those comics end up being bought by the new readers that DC are hoping for?? Or are we seeing a return of the speculators? Remember when Jim Lee sold 8 million copies of X-men #1??? How many of those sales were to new readers?? And how many people bought 10 or 20 copies to sell at a profit later on?? Is this what is going on here too?? Let’s hope NOT.

Seeing the combo pack on EBAY for $29.99 or the standard edition for $9.99, I can’t help but wonder how many copies were bought with the intent to make a quick buck. I guess we will have to wait and see the sales of Justice League issue #2 to try to get a clearer picture of how many new readers are actually willing to come back for more.

I sincerely hope that like Captain America #25, many of those who tried to make a quick buck will end up stuck with their extra copies of Justice League #1 that nobody will buy. Hopefully it will teach them a lesson and stop that kind of thinking. We shall see.

And it has been announced as the bestselling digital comic of August. So what does that even mean?? 1000 copies sold?? 10,000?? 50,000?? Without any sales number to back it up, this announcement is pretty pointless.

Don’t get me wrong, Jim and I started our little venture on the frontline of making digital comics because we knew that there were people out there who wanted to get some new content online. Who wanted to read digital comics. And any announcement that would prove us right is always appreciated.

But without any numbers to back it up, this doesn’t mean anything. If it was such a hit and they had sold 5,000,000 copies, I have no doubt that they would have mentioned that number in their announcement. But as it is, we can only try to guess what that actually means. For all we know, they sold 2000 copies.

Editors Note 3: A number that would put it in the same 1% ballpark as their other digital sales.

Guess we will have to wait and see. So in short, the DCnU was kick-started with an average comic that sold a truckload of copies. Will I get back for issue #2?? The short answer is, No. This series will be added to the list of “let’s wait for the trade”. Once the first arc is completed and we can finally have a complete story, maybe, maybe I will give the TPB a try - or maybe not. We shall see.

What would I have done differently??? Well this blog is getting kind of long, so I will keep this for next time, but I have two questions for you before I wrap this up:

What did YOU think of the start of the DCnU and Justice League #1??

And,

Will you come back for issue #2??

Until next time.

-Pierre

Gone in a Flashpoint

Today, Pierre continues his thoughts on the DC Relaunch with a look at Flashpoint 5. There are spoilers in this article if you haven't read Flashpoint 5, so be aware.

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Flashpoint is over and the DCnU is HERE!! So how could we describe the end of the DCU???
One word. Bittersweet.

Bitter, because it was the end of an era. But sweet because there was some fun tales. Some fun and touching moments in those last comics to be part of the DCU. The Batgirl comic was especially good and sad at the same time. And this is the only Batgirl issue I ever read. and I was sad in the end. So I can understand the disappointment of the Batgirl fans to see this series end like this.

 The Emerald Warrior was a very special treat as well. And that last scene with Batman. BWA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA!!!!!!!! I will miss that series. But at least we will still see Guy in Green Lantern Corps.

JLA was great too. The Saturn/Thanagar War 2 pages spread made me want to read that tale. Damn that could have been a fun saga. But I guess we will never know now.

And the last scene between Dick and Donna was pretty touching as well. Although for comics like the Dark Knight. It is business as usual. The comic basically ends to be continued in the next issue.

Although, technically, the last DCU comic should be the NEW Teen Titans Games GN that will come out in September. I don’t know about you, but I am dying to read that book. I am a huge Perez fan and I was a fan of the Wolfman/Perez Titans. So this book should be pure goodness in each panel. We shall see.

I will miss the DCU. So let’s start with Flashpoint. It was a fun ride…. But I could not help but be disappointed by the final issue. The artwork is very good and full of energy… but the story is another matter. The story has a few very VERY basic flaws that are impossible to ignore/forgive. I must admit. I did not read all of the tie-ins. So it is possible that I have not read a crucial part of the story. But then again if you cannot follow the story from just reading the Flashpoint series itself. there is a problem.

First, the reveal that Barry Allen is the cause of the Flashpoint. That came out of nowhere. In the book Tools to Screenwriting: A writer’s guide to the craft and elements of a screenplay there is a small section devoted to something called planting and payoff. Essentially planting clues early in the story leading towards some sort of payoff later in the story.

A great example of planting and payoff is the film The Sixth Sense. The reveal at the end is a quite a surprise (at least it was to me), but once you watch the film again, you see that all the clues that pointed to the fact that he was a ghost were right there. Right there from the start - but in a subtle enough way that you did not realise what they really meant at the time.

But even after reading the final issue of Flashpoint and knowing how it turns out. Looking back at other issues in the series still leave me clueless as to what lead to this. The closest thing to a plant that I could see is the last few pages of the Flash (Issue 12) where we see Barry at his mother’s grave. Then we see someone whom I assumed is Zoom (although now I think it’s Barry, but him being coloured yellow in one panel mislead me into thinking this was Zoom) saying “It changes.” And then we see a BIG lightning on the last page. That’s it???

Those were the clues that were supposed to lead us to the reveal that Barry had gone back in time to save his mother?? And if he DID go back in time to save his mom, why is he surprised to see her alive in Flashpoint issue #1?? He just saved her.  Oh that’s right - Zoom later tells Barry “You forgot didn’t you?”

Although he did not forget being the Flash… Bruce being Batman… Etc… but he forgot saving his mother 3 seconds after doing it??? Really?? Come on!!

That reveal was so disappointing that it pretty much ruined the whole Flashpoint story for me. And second, the final nail in the coffin, the 2 pages spread explaining the 3 universes merging together to make the new DCnU. Once again, something that comes out of nowhere. A mystery woman that we never saw before and we have no clue as to whom she is comes by and with the help of Barry merges the 3 universes into one.

Holy *@#*#... that is as bad as One More Day or the “no more mutants” from House of M.  Might as well have had God himself come down and create the DCnU. At least we would have had a cool line like “So it is written…. So it shall be.” And it would have been a counterpoint to Mephisto rebooting Spider-man in OMD. If Spidey can make a deal with the Devil to reboot his comic, why not have Flash make a deal with God to reboot the DCU??  Makes about as much sense. 

So anyway… Mystery Lady mentions that history was “shattered into three long ago”. Really… when?? When was the Wildstorm/Vertigo and DCU ever shattered in 3?? Once more something that comes out of nowhere that we read about here for the very first time.

As for Vertigo... it was always part of the DCU. The Vertigo characters just did not interact with the DCU characters much at some point. But it was still the same universe. And DC brought some of the Vertigo characters back to interact more with the rest of the DCU not that long ago. Heck, that was the WHOLE point of Brightest Day. Animal Man, a Vertigo staple, was in 52 for crying out loud. Vertigo and the DCU was the SAME universe. Damn that 2 pages reveal is bad on so many level.

Essentially, the whole point of Flashpoint seems to be to bring the Wildstorm Universe into the DCU.  But it seemed that DC decided to take this opportunity to reboot their lower selling comics as well.
On the flipside, Flashpoint had some fun moments. It was enjoyable to see what they did with Hal Jordan, Abin Sur, Citizen Cold, heck Cyborg hadn’t been so cool since his early days in the NEW Teen Titans. But the reveal that Barry was the cause of Flashpoint and the One More Day type of storytelling device combined with a blantant Deus Ex Machina soiled what was a otherwise rip-roaring comic event tale.

But despite those 2 VERY HUMONGUS flaws, Flashpoint managed to end with a very touching scene between Barry and Bruce.



Up next: Justice League 1!

Until then,

- Pierre

Kidsville and Lidsville

Sorry for today's late post. I apparently took the Labor part of Labor Day more seriously than I anticipated and spent all weekend working on home repairs for my parents. While I was back at the old homestead, I managed to find a old box of non superhero comics (Archie, Richie Rich, Hot Stuff, Walt Disney, Star Trek) Seeing all the old children's comics made me wonder:

What do you think of the general state of comics for kids today?

My gut reaction is to say it's pretty good.

Anytime my 6 year old daughter  and I go to the comic store, she can almost always find something she's interested in. Her latest success was the new Strawberry Shortcake comic from Ape Entertainment! (Who have put out several new kids comics recently)



Ape also publishes a Kung Fu Panda and Richie Rich (an updated version) as well as several others that are not as famous. In addition to those titles, Boom! Studios has a kids line of comics called KaBoom which up until recently published several Disney and Pixar themed comics (as well as the the award winning Muppets comics) I say up until recently, because over the past few months, there has been some shifting in the lineup of titles as Marvel, now owned by Disney, looks like it might become the publisher of choice for some of the more popular Disney properties.

Disney is a wanton lady when it comes to its liscensed properties. The very successful Fairies of Pixie Hollow line of comics is published by Paper Cutz, a New York company not widely known among comic retailers, which makes finding those comics/books difficult. Paper Cutz doesn't even have a way to buy their titles directly from them, which strikes me as incredibly awkward in this day an age. Thankfully, Amazon makes finding all of these simpler.



The art and storytelling in all of these comics generally runs very high especially when compared to some of the poor offerings I had when I was growing up. (I'm thinking of some of the poorly drawn Gold Key titles from my youth.) One artist in particular, Amy Mebberson is quickly becoming a favorite of mine with her clean line work, versatility and nice eye for storytelling.

Anyway, with all the hoopla over comic continuities getting relaunched, feared up and shattered, I thought a good choice for today's free comic would be one from a less volatile comic universe. This one is from the minds of classic Saturday Morning imagineers, Sid and Marty Krofft:

[ Lidsville 04 ]



Enjoy!

- Jim

High Rez Reviews 2 | Justice League #1

Today, Caine returns with another High Rez Review - this one of the new Justice League!

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LAST ISSUE.....
It all started on May 31st...
"On Wednesday, August 31st, DC Comics will launch a historic renumbering of the entire DC Universe line of comic books with 52 first issues, including the release of JUSTICE LEAGUE by NEW YORK TIMES bestselling writer and DC Entertainment Chief Creative Officer Geoff Johns and bestselling artist and DC Comics Co-Publisher Jim Lee. The publication of JUSTICE LEAGUE issue 1 will launch day-and-date digital publishing for all these ongoing titles, making DC Comics the first of the two major American publishers to release all of its superhero comic book titles digitally the same day as in print."

HIGH RES APP PREVIEW...
Today I'll be reviewing a comic purchased on my iPad from the DC Comics digital comic store: The Justice League.  As a rule these High Res Reviews will be spoiler free unless we give you lots of warning of the contrary.

 DC's Digital Comic store is laid out similarly over the web as well as on the iPad (so if you don't have an iPad the app portion of the review should still apply to web users/ readers).  At 2:00 p.m. eastern time I was able to launch the app and see the comics available on August 31st.  Before then there was a general weekly preview digital comic that was offered for free.  DC's Comixology powered app works just fine.  The comic was selected, paid for and downloaded very quickly over wifi with no glitches or crashes.

There is a problem, in this blogger's opinion, with DC's standard website however.  Simply put there is no link to download the comic from their browse comic page.  Now, you can access all of DC Comic's digital comics through read.dccomics.com but what happens if you don't know it or can't remember it?  If there was a link on the page below it wouldn't matter...

HIGH RES COMIC REVIEW...
The JUSTICE LEAGUE has always been DC Comic's greatest heroes come together to take on those threats too large for any of them to handle on their own.  The new JUSTICE LEAGUE #1 is no different, accept it that it is.  Confused?  Don't be.  You see Super Heroes are brand new to the DCU now.  They've only been around for about a year and all of them (by them I mean the JLU) seem to have sprung up nearly all at once around the U.S.  None of them really know each other and nearly all of them feel that the others may not even be real.

The book opens on the Gotham City roof tops with this "Batman" character being chased by the GCPD in riot gear, swat attack helicopters, and sniper rifles.  They don't seem to be assisting him, nor do they care that he's trying to save the city.  As the chase continues we are introduced to Batman for the first time only to have him literally bump right into the Green Lantern who's come to assist this mythical man who seems to dress up like a bat.

 We are introduced to the very arrogant Green Lantern (and I happen to think his updated personality is an improvement) for the first time and once they escape the police and continue chasing the threat to the city there is conversation of an alien who's rumored to exist over in Metropolis.  Where, as it would happen, is the very place they need to go.

You see?  It's all new, not only to us the fans/readers but to the characters inside the DCnU as well. 

The art by Jim Lee, Scott Williams, Alex Sinclair and the rest of the team possess a particular "gritty-tech" feel to it.  If you liked the way HUSH looked visually then you are all set.  Like all comics the art (and the writing) won't be liked by all fans but DC has their "Brightest" on this book so I'm betting they think this is the preferred look of the DCnU.

The art did not get in the way of the story, which flowed nicely and built to a climax at the end of the first issue as we were successfully re-introduced to three of the future members of the JLU,  teased by the namedrop of a major villain in the DCnU, and given a good dose of the way this new reality feels.  There were pleasant surprises, fun moments, and happy reunions that any major DC fan isn't going to want to miss. 

PAPER COMIC DEATHWATCH NOTE...
I went ahead and got my hands on the printed paper copy of the same comic and look what they are placing inside?  QR Codes.  :)

Well that about does it for this round of HIGH RES REVIEWS.  What do you think?  Are you a tablet owner?  Are you reading comics on it?  If so are you buying comics on it?  Thoughts on the 3.99 price point?  We'd love to hear from you about this review, and about digital comics in general.  Feel free to leave any comments you may have.

~Caine