I started doing individual reviews of each of DC Comics’ issues of their New 52 launch and quickly realized that I didn’t have enough time in the day to do that. As much as I would like to, it just isn’t feasible. I’ve decided what I am going to do is articles ranking each week’s releases of #1 issues. Each article will feature half of the issues give or take one or two because, except for one week, they’re releasing 13 at a time. I’m presently catching up and covering the books released on September 7.
Number One – Detective Comics #1
Written by Tony S. Daniel
Art by Tony S. Daniel and Ryan Winn
Cover by Tony S. Daniel
On Sale September 7, 2011
DC Universe; 32 pg.; Color; $2.99 US
I was definitely not disappointed with Detective Comics #1. I would be very surprised if any fan of the Dark Knight is. Sure, it’s weird to be transported back to the beginning all of a sudden. I could get used to it, though. If I just think about it the same way I think about J.J. Abrams’ “Star Trek,” I’m all right. It’s as if everything still happened in the past, but now we’ve went back and are rewriting real history. I can handle anything as long as it doesn’t have to do with being on another Earth or in an alternate universe. I don’t want to sound cliché, but just keep it real… in the comic book world. To read the rest of the review go here.
Number Two – Batwing #1
Written by Judd Winick
Art and cover by Ben Oliver
On Sale September 7, 2011
DC Universe; 32pg.; Color; $2.99 US
If it wasn’t for Detective Comics coming out the very same week, this would easily have been my number one. This was packed full of excitement and suspense from the very beginning of the issue. It’s very fascinating to see how a Batman figure would fit into the African society. The artwork is graphic, eye-catching and matches the color scheme you would expect to find in an African setting. I really hope Bat-fans are as excited about this new title as I am so that it can continue for many years to come. This is a refreshing addition to the extended Bat Family.
Number Three – Batgirl #1
“Shattered”
Written by Gail Simone
Art by Ardian Syaf and Vicente Cifuentes
Cover by Adam Hughes
On Sale September 7, 2011
DC Universe; 32pg.; Color; $2.99 US
This book was highly interesting to me because I wanted to see how they were going to explain away Barbara Gordon not being in a wheelchair and never becoming Oracle. They basically did a dream sequence, showing that in this new timeline she had been shot by the Joker but not paralyzed. That’s pretty much it. We move along from there and find her running into a mysterious cloaked figure that calls himself Mirror and kills unmercifully. The art for the book is realistic and the coloring pops out from each panel. It’s a good start for the title and leaves you wanting more.
Number Four – Swamp Thing #1
“Raise Dem Bones”
Written by Scott Snyder
Art and cover by Yanick Paquette
On Sale September 7, 2011
DC Universe; 32pg.; Color; $2.99 US
I love Swamp Thing. After recently re-visiting the first few issues of the original Bernie Wrightson/Len Wein run of the creature from 1972 and 1973, I was very interested in seeing if this new relaunch would capture the same horrific beauty it had. I’m happy to say that it succeeds. Scott Snyder does what he does best by concentrating on the horror and monster aspects, but somehow hangs on to shreds of humanity at the same time. The art by Paquette is disturbing and at some points reminded me of something you would see in a new version of EC Comics.
Number Five – Action Comics #1
“Superman versus the City of Tomorrow”
Written by Grant Morrison
Art by Rags Morales and Rick Bryant
Cover by Rags Morales; Variant cover by Jim Lee and Scott Williams
On Sale September 7, 2011
DC Universe; 40pg.; Color; $3.99 US
I have to say that I enjoyed this relaunch a whole lot more than I thought I would. This is a more radical take on what J. Michael Straczynski did with his “Superman: Earth One” series. It was interesting to see Superman being treated as an alien by the police and military (working with Lex Luthor, of course). I still prefer the original romantic version of the story where the world just accepts the Man of Steel because we need him, but this concept Grant Morrison has brought to the table is entertaining as well. The severity of the cliffhanger seemed a bit much for a first issue but I can look past that. The two-page spread of Superman standing on the edge of the building holding the bad guy over his head at the beginning of the book is frame worthy to say the least.
Number Six – Static Shock #1
“Recharged”
Written by Scott McDaniel and John Rozum;
Art and cover by Scott McDaniel and Jonathan Glapion and LeBeau Underwood
On Sale September 7, 2011
DC Universe; 32pg.; Color; $2.99 US
I’ve never really been a fan of the Static Shock character. There was no particular reason why, I just always had other super hero books that took up my allotted comic reading time. When I heard that artist Scott McDaniel was going to be writing and drawing the relaunch of the Static Shock title for the New 52, I knew I had to check it out. I followed McDaniel’s work in Detective Comics and Justice League and have a deep respect of him on a personal level as well. Static Shock #1 opens the character up to a whole new world of possibilities for action and showdowns with super villains just by moving the story to a different city. I think Static Shock creator Dwayne McDuffie would be very proud of where the New 52 series has taken the character. If things progress as quickly as they came together for issue 1, we might see Static get big enough to join the Justice League proper sometime in the future. To read the rest of this review go here.
For more articles by Eric Shirey, check out:
Detective Comics #1 Comic Book Review
Justice League #1 Comic Book Review
‘Batman: The Brave and the Bold Season Two Part One’ DVD Review
Eric Shirey is the founder and editor of Rondo Award nominated movie and comic book news websites MovieGeekFeed.com and TheSpectralRealm.com. He also served as a news reporter for the award winning movie website GordonandtheWhale.com. His work has been featured on Yahoo! Movies, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! TV, Associated Content from Yahoo!, DC Comics, StarWars.com, and other national entertainment websites. Besides his three decades long obsession with everything sci-fi, horror, and fantasy related in TV and movies, Eric has what some would call an unhealthy love for comic books. This has led him to interviewing and covering legendary writers and artists in the medium like Scott Snyder, Steve Niles, Bernie Wrightson, and Howard Chaykin. His personal website is www.ersink.com.