Animal Man #5

Title: Animal Man
Issue: 5
Date: March 2012
Publisher: DC Comics
Writer: Jeff Lemire
Penciler: Travel Foreman, Steve Pugh
Inker: Travel Foreman, Jeff Huet
Colorist: Lovern Kindzierski
Letterer: Jared K. Fletcher
Editor: Kate Stewart, Joey Cavalieri
Cover: Travel Foreman, Lovern Kindzierski

Buddy and Maxine return from the Red to confront the third of the Hunters Three, but Maxine's inexperience with her own powers makes a bad situation much, much worse.

This is exactly what the current plot needed: Something to show that Maxine is not the all-powerful and all-knowing god-child. And perfect timing too.

There were also good moments from just about every member of the supporting cast as the situation degenerated from bad to near-apocalyptic. This was a good taste of how deadly an enemy the Rot is going to be, and it was delivered with good fast pacing and some unexpected twists.

Ending was a bit too much of a blatant marketing plot for my tastes, but overall a strong issue.

Rating: 7.5/10

Animal Man #4

Back to the New 52!

Title: Animal Man
Issue: 4
Date: February 2012
Publisher: DC Comics
Writer: Jeff Lemire
Penciler: Travel Foreman
Inker: Travel Foreman, Jeff Huet
Colorist: Lovern Kindzierski
Letterer: Jared K. Fletcher
Editor: Kate Stewart, Joey Cavalieri
Cover: Travel Foreman, Lovern Kindzierski

Two of the Hunters Three are fighting Buddy Baker in the Red's dimension while the third is currently impersonating a cop to get close to the Baker family.

And in spite of all that, this feels like a very transitional issue, dominated mostly by a huge infodump courtesy of the Red. The tension did pick up toward the end, but the opening fight scene (featuring a hulked-up Animal Man) didn't do much for me.

The visuals continue to be creatively shocking, especially the final scene.

Rating: 6/10

Animal Man #3

I didn't get another comic to review at Templecon today, so it's back to the New 52.

Title: Animal Man
Issue: 3
Date: January 2012
Publisher: DC Comics
Writer: Jeff Lemire
Penciler: Travel Foreman
Inker: Travel Foreman
Colorist: Lovern Kindzierski
Letterer: Jared K. Fletcher
Editor: Kate Stewart, Joey Cavalieri
Cover: Travel Foreman, Lovern Kindzierski

The pace of the plot picks up in this issue as the Hunters Three launch an all-out attack on the Baker family, both on Earth and in the Red.

The action back home is the more interesting scenario, as Ellen tries to escape from one of the Hunters only to find herself walking into a trap.

Meanwhile in the Red, Buddy meets the Totems (kinda the Red equivalent of the Parlaiment of Trees, or at least that's the vibe I got), and then fights to defend Maxine (who is, rather unfortunately, being referred to as the "Avatar" here) against the remaining two Hunters.

The pacing is good and the visuals are great, but a lot of this feels very familiar. The child savior must fight the war against the forces of the Rot, and Buddy doesn't want his daughter put at risk. And meanwhile, the rest of his family is in jeopardy.

I feel like I'm still waiting for this series to wow me with something really unexpected. Maybe next issue.

Rating: 6/10

Animal Man #2

Still working on New 52 #2's. Only one more after this.

Title: Animal Man
Issue: 2
Date: December 2011
Publisher: DC Comics
Writer: Jeff Lemire
Penciler: Travel Foreman
Inker: Travel Foreman, Dan Green
Colorist: Lovern Kindzierski
Letterer: Jared K. Fletcher
Editor: Kate Stewart, Joey Cavalieri
Cover: Travel Foreman, Lovern Kindzierski

Things go rapidly from strange to stranger in the Baker household, and Maxine tells Buddy that he needs to go "into the Red" to save the Old Tree, on which all other life depends. Conveniently, the map of the way into the red as appeared tattooed onto Buddy's skin.

Maxine as the mysterious prodigy with all the answers is walking a thin line on the edge of cliche territory, but the actual execution of the plot was pretty good in this issue. The art is surreal in places and intense everywhere, and the horror elements were pretty disturbing.

This is a solid follow-up to the first issue that delivers good emotional conflict, well-paced advancement of the plot, and some nice shocks along the way.

Rating: 7/10

All Star Western #1

Back to reviewing the new lineup from DC. This is their new "western" title. Except that it takes place in the East.

Title: All Star Western
Issue: 1
Date: November 2011
Publisher: DC Comics
Writer: Jimmy Palmiotti, Justin Gray
Artist: Moritat
Colorist: Gabriel Bautista
Letterer: Rob Leigh
Editor: Kate Stewart, Joey Cavalieri
Cover: Moritat

Since when is Gotham City WESTERN? It's in New Jersey! I actually think that DC missed a good opportunity to title this comic Gotham By Gaslight, a name that they own and which might bring in the steampunk crowd.

Regardless, we are indeed in Gotham City, and Jonah Hex is in town, teaming up with early forensic psychologist Amadeus Arkham to track down Jack the Ripper the Gotham Butcher.

There's a young prostitute who knows Hex and manages to pass along some useful information once he's done laying a beatdown on the locals in a barroom brawl. She's actually a likeable character (Hex and Arkham really aren't). So of course she gets killed off in the next scene. This is the old west east! People weren't likable back then! Or if they were, it meant they were DOOMED! Oh, and women who do things like work as prostitutes or stand up to the hero need to be put in their place, of course.

Other than the rather blatant refrigerator moment, the rest of this book is simply dull. The serial killer (or killers; conspiracy theories and secret societies are hinted) acts like every TV serial killer. Arkham spouts Freudian analysis, but manages to come up with no insights about either the killer or Hex (who receives the bulk of the psychobabble) that are actually interesting or surprising.

Populating the city with the ancestors of characters from the current Batman continuity is a clever touch, although the handling of Mayor Cobblepot is ham-fisted. The character basically IS the Penguin.

This was the first book I've read in the "New 52" that really felt LONG. And not in a good way. Between Arkham's incessant psychoanalysis in caption form and a succession of scenes of Hex beating people up for no reason that actually made any sense, the book just seemed to drag on an on.

Rating: 3/10

Men of War #1

DC comics returns to the old tradition of war comics with this series from the "New 52".

Title: Men of War
Issue: 1
Date: November 2011
Publisher: DC Comics
Writer: Ivan Brandon, Jonathan Vankin
Penciler: Tom Derenick, Phil Winslade
Inker: Tom Derenick
Colorist: Matt Wilson, Thomas Chu
Letterer: Rob Leigh
Editor: Kate Stewart, Joey Cavalieri
Cover: Viktor Kalvachev

DC's new war comic features (Corporal at the start of the story, sergeant by the time we're done) Joseph Rock, grandson of the classic Sergeant Rock character. He spends about three pages trading military cliches with his commanding officers as they dance around the issue of how Rock is a good soldier, but keeps disobeying orders, but in a way that always seems to work out in the end. The brass sees leadership potential in Rock, but Rock is content as a grunt. After the discussion fails to reach any kind of meaningful conclusion, we head into the thick of the action.

And not just any action. This is warfare in the superheroic age. The actual superheroes function as artillery. They're destructive, come out of nowhere, are not all that accurately targeted, and cause a ton of collateral damage.

Rock gets himself a battlefield promotion (the hard way), but not a whole lot of plot actually happens.

But wait, there's more. When I bought this comic, I didn't notice the $3.99 price tag until I brought it up to the register. I was a bit surprised that a title that doesn't feature a "hot" character got the higher price point. Apparently we are paying the extra buck for a backup story.

So, the backup story is "Navy Seals: Human Shields". The main thing that struck me was how wordy the dialogue was. I just have a very hard time believing that real soldiers in combat talk this much. And to add to the wordiness we get little translations of military terminology like "rocket propelled grenade" (and here I was thinking they meant Dungeons & Dragons) and "rules of engagement".

The main characters are a Navy Seal odd couple. One of them is a pretty straightforward gung-ho marine type. The other guy is a former Peace Corps volunteer who realized that "If you want to do good, it helps to have an assault rifle." You know, like Gandhi and Jesus used to carry. It doesn't help that the writers don't actually include any real details of the character's Peace Corps service, which might have at least made for some interesting background.

The story itself is clearly trying to highlight the moral ambiguities of war with a scared-looking insurgent girl nervously clutching a Kalashnikov. Of course the real threat is a Bin-Laden looking dude who jumps out to ambush the seals just as they decline to shoot the girl. Stereotyping much?

When this book was originally advertised, there was a mention that the new Sergeant Rock would be a Blackwater-style mercenary, so I'm glad that (so far, at least) there was no sign of that particular plot element. I liked the idea of showing warfare in the age of the superhero, and the point-of-view of the grunt on the ground while a Superman-level character wreaks havoc was impressive.

Unfortunately, the backup story was absolutely horrible. I admire the real-life Navy Seals, but these guys just needed to shut up.

There are a lot of important stories to be told about our armed forces serving in the current wars. They need a comic that does a better job of representing them.

Rating: 5/10

Animal Man #1

Another character that spent some time as a Vertigo book. Now back in the main DCU for the "New 52".

Title: Animal Man
Issue: 1
Date: November 2011
Publisher: DC Comics
Writer: Jeff Lemire
Penciler: Travel Foreman
Inker: Travel Foreman, Dan Green
Colorist: Lovern Kindzierski
Letterer: Jared K. Fletcher
Editor: Kate Stewart, Joey Cavalieri
Cover: Travel Foreman

Clever opening with a first-page text feature that is a magazine interview with actor, animal rights activist, and semi-retired superhero Buddy Baker. Buddy isn't really sure what to do with himself, and the pressures to provide for his family are beginning to mount.

When he stops a distraught hostage-taker at a hospital, Buddy gets his first hint that something is not right in the morphogenic field that is the source of his powers.

The focus soon shifts to Buddy's daughter, Maxine, who really wants a pet puppy. Someone should have played the old song "dead puppies aren't much fun" for her.

There's also a very surreal (and pretty effective) dream sequence in here.

Horror, check. Family drama, check. Something weird going on with Maxine, check. Surrealism and bizarre dreams, check.

Yeah, this is an Animal Man book. It is, in fact, THE typical Animal Man story from the Vertigo run, and it left me with quite a bit of deja vu. I'm guessing this was a conscious decision, made to introduce new readers to they type of story that longtime fans expect from this title. While not all that new or original, it was handled well from start to finish.

Buddy Baker works really well as a sort of liberal "everyman" character. He's an environmentalist and a vegan, and he's got a complex family situation to juggle. And he's basically a well-intentioned nice guy. A lot of readers will relate to him (even readers who don't agree with him on his choice of a vegan lifestyle). It's hard not to relate to him.

The story moved along at a good pace and planted plenty of seeds for future action. It also had some creepy moments and a disturbing ending.

I would have liked some more originality, but this provided a good starting point.

Rating: 7/10

Green Arrow Industries #1

Title: Green Arrow Industries
Issue: 1
Date: August 2011
Publisher: DC Comics
Writer: Pornsak Pichetshote
Penciler: Marco Castiello, Ig Guara
Inker: Vincenzo Acunzo, Ruy Jose
Colorist: Stefani Renee
Letterer: Carlos M. Mangual
Editor: Kate Stewart, Joey Cavalieri

This is a Flashpoint crossover, so cue Donkey saying "This must be one of those alternate universes!"

In this particular piece of the Flashpoint universe, Oliver Queen is, well, actually he's Tony Stark. But a lot less competent. His company, Green Arrow Industries, manufactures weapons for the US Government. Except instead of doing their own research and development, they've hit upon the perfect source of new technology: Super-villains. After all, what is some random super-powered criminal going to do when Green Arrow Industries steals their gadget? Take them to court?

Of course there is the little problem that this practice tends to make Oliver a lot of enemies.

This is not an absolutely horrible setup. Which is a good thing, because the rest of the comic is, indeed, absolutely horrible.

After introducing the aforementioned scenario, we get a brief scene where security chief Roy Harper urges Oliver to use his corporate assets for good. One panel later Roy is dead (Now that death is one I would consider speedy! *ducks* Sorry, couldn't resist.).

Anyway, there are assassins loose on the premises. Actually just one assassin. The security teams and the rest of the assassins have all killed each other in a bloody battle that took place entirely off-screen. The one remaining assassin is escaping, and instead of just sitting tight and waiting for his backup to arrive, Oliver decides to go after her. He briefly considers bringing a bow that he just happened to be carrying around for no real reason, and then decides that he'd be better off arming himself with an entire rogues' gallery worth of supervillain gear. For some reason, the writer decided to make the fact that Oliver is incompetent with a bow in this universe into a running joke.

Turns out, he's actually just incompetent in general.

So he fights it out with this assassin-girl (who's armed with a bow, of course), and in between fighting they argue over various misdeeds done by Oliver's corporation, until the whole thing finally comes to a rather nasty conclusion that pretty much renders the whole story meaningless.

So, to recap, Oliver is incompetent and a jerk. Assassin-girl is a generic anti-corporate crusader whose surprising connection to Oliver is about as obvious as could be, and Roy Harper actually seems like he's got an interesting personality but is killed off on page five. Also, Harper was in charge of security when all of this went down, so he's not exactly scoring high on the competency scale either.

And the "intriguing" question posed here is the question of whether a corporation can function as a superhero, which buys a bit too into the whole corporate personhood concept for my tastes.

As I mentioned in my previous review, the basic problem with an alternate universe story like Flashpoint is that there is no real reason for the reader to care about the characters. The reader has no emotional investment in this version of Oliver Queen and Roy Harper because we all know that this is a temporary version and that the whole DC Universe is about to get reset.

The only way to win the reader over is with compelling stories and characters that are interesting and appealing enough to make the reader care.

This comic had neither.

Rating: 2.5/10