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