Hello again GEN readers! It’s Jill a.k.a. The Nerdy Bird back with this week’s installment of DoubleDCoverage. Bet you didn’t know Superman’s super secret origin involved kissing. Wednesday Comics has come to a close. Can you believe 12 weeks went by that fast? I’ve got a full run-down of all 15 stories. Reviews for Superman: Secret Origin #1 and Wednesday Comics #12 are ahead. Also, check out my star ratings for my other pulls from last Wednesday!
SUPERMAN: SECRET ORIGIN #1 (OF 6)
Do you think there’s anyone in the world who doesn’t know Superman’s origin? Ok, I’m sure there are a few but still, out of all the heroes, his is one of the most widely known. So, why exactly do we need yet another telling of it? I’m sure we’ll find out eventually.
The book opens with mini-Clark Kent playing an innocent game of football with his friends. And as the saying goes, “it’s all fun and games until somebody gets hurt.” One of his friends runs into him and breaks his arm but it’s ok because it get’s him lots of sympathy from the girls at school. At this point Clark’s powers are still emerging and he’s frightened by them. With good reason, one kiss from Lana Lang and his heat vision sets off the sprinkler system. Back at home, Jonathan and Martha Kent are stern but understanding of his situation. It’s been known in the household for a while that Clark was different but, up until now, they’ve kept the why a secret.
With some reservation on Martha’s part, Clark’s parents show him the rocket he fell to Earth in. He actually thinks it’s cool until his biological parents images and voices appear to tell him of his heritage. His anger makes his heat vision flare up again and he blasts some of the crystals off the ship. Jonathan fashions them into Clark’s trademark glasses to protect everyone from future accidents. I don’t know if that’s ever been the case before but it’s certainly clever. At the county fair Clark runs into Lex Luthor for the first time. Lex is acting superior as usual, selling books he’s either memorized or debunked. He’s found a piece of kryptonite but a tornado with great timing keeps Clark’s reaction to it under wraps for now. He takes his first accidental flight saving Lana and heads home to find Martha hard at work at creating a costume for him. In a scene that feels straight out of A Christmas Story, Clark walks downstairs in the costume and says, “You both better take a nice, long look because today is the last time I ever wear this.”
I can’t say it wasn’t a good issue. It hit a lot of cute beats and had a good amount of emotional tugs but it just failed to jump out at me with anything dramatically different from the get-go. That being said, I felt the same way about Geoff Johns’ Green Lantern: Secret Origin at first too and I wound up really liking where he went with that. Honestly, I know DC wouldn’t be doing this series with Johns if it wasn’t going to show us some new and exciting things so I’m sticking with it. Gary Frank’s art plays a big part in my decision as well. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen an artist so well suited to Superman. Up next, Clark meets the Legion of Super-heroes for the first time.
WEDNESDAY COMICS #12
It feels like just yesterday I was complaining about reading comics in newspaper form. DC’s latest weekly offering was certainly different from the rest but overall was it successful and entertaining? I’m going to attempt to give you a quick review of each of the 15 stories and rate them separately before I give an overall rating. Here goes nothing…
Batman by Brian Azzarello (writer), Eduardo Risso (artist) – I thought I would like this story more but I didn’t. There was a lot there but I also felt like a lot was missing. Each week it felt as if I had skipped an issue. I’m still a bit concerned that Bruce decided to sleep with a murder suspect. The art was fair for me, not bad, not great but I could go for seeing more of it.
Kamandi by Dave Gibbons (writer), Ryan Sook (artist)– Since it was the second story in the series it was the first that felt complete to me. It had a beginning, middle and end and was dramatic throughout. For someone who hasn’t read much about Kamandi before, it’s peaked my interest for more. I really enjoyed the art on this one.
Superman by John Arcudi (writer), Lee Bermejo (artist) – I liked this one purely for the art at first since the story seemed to be moving very slowly but eventually that wasn’t enough to keep me interested. In the end the story felt like it amounted to nothing and in fact took a very confusing turn at the end. I’d like to see Bermejo’s art somewhere else soon.
Deadman by Dave Bullock and Vinton Heuck (writers), Dave Bullock (artist) – It started out stronger than it finished but I enjoyed it overall. Though I felt as if the story wrapped up the week before and this was more of an epilogue. I loved Bullock’s art style.
Green Lantern by Kurt Busiek (writer), Joe Quinones (artist), Pat Brosseau (colorist) – This also felt like an epilogue but it was a very fun GL story. Definitely a far cry from Blackest Night, Busiek’s story harkened back the New Frontier style Hal Jordan. Quinones’ art was perfectly suited to the story and it was fun seeing Hal much less defined as far as muscles go for a change.
Metamorpho by Neil Gaiman (writer), Mike Allred (artist) – Even though the characters were trying to do something serious, this was one of the more lighthearted entries. It’s obvious Neil Gaiman really had fun playing with Metamorpho and his friends and I must give him loads of credit again for his extraordinary use of the periodic table. Him and Allred were among the few who really used the layout to their advantage.
Teen Titans by Eddie Berganza (writer), Sean Galloway (artist) – I barely know what to say about this one. It was my second most-hated WC story. Mostly it’s because the story was extremely scatterbrained. Half the time I didn’t know who was narrating and the other half just plain didn’t make sense. Characters appearing and disappearing out of nowhere and the lack of any background made the action extremely hard to follow. I actually liked how Galloway drew the characters themselves but it wasn’t nearly enough to save this awful…whatever it was.
Strange Adventures by Paul Pope – This last installment felt a bit out of place with all the rest. The action was over and Adam Strange was left doubting his relationship. Other than that this was a well-put together story. The art was a little out of the ordinary and I’m still not a big Strange fan but everything worked.
Supergirl by Jimmy Palmiotti (writer), Amanda Conner (artist) – My favorite, hands down. I couldn’t wait to read this one each week. It was a fun story, a cohesive story and it was consistent the entire twelve weeks. The ending was adorable and Conner’s art remained playful. I’d like to see the same team take on Aquaman next time (if there is a next time) and I still wish we had 5 Amanda Conner’s so her work could be seen more often.
Metal Men by Dan Didio (writer), Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez (artist) – A regular old outing for the Metal Men with an altogether surprising ending. Not much else to say really. Garcia-Lopez made the Metal Men look their best but am I the only one that thought Pretorius looked slightly like Grant Morrison?
Wonder Woman by Ben Caldwell – Dreadful, simply dreadful. I cringed every time I reached this page in the comic. Incomprehensible is the best word I can use to describe this story and layout. I was originally stricken by the art, in a good way. Caldwell’s work is beautiful but he also fell into the trap of having little or no backgrounds to help give the story some much-needed context. Not to mention the teeny-tiny panels that looked like they were arranged by a three-year-old. Half the time I couldn’t read it, the other half, I didn’t know which panel to read next. The story itself was horrendous and made absolutely no sense. I’d like to see Caldwell’s art somewhere else but with more room to breath.
Sgt. Rock by Adam Kubert (writer), Joe Kubert (artist) – I’ve never read any Sgt. Rock stories before and this one didn’t convince me to. It was a good story for what it was but a lot of time seemed to be wasted. It felt like Sgt. Rock was being interrogated (but not exactly talked to much) for weeks. The art fit the war genre well though.
The Flash by Karl Kerschl and Brenden Fletcher (writers), Karl Kerschl (artist) Iris West by Dave McCaig (writer), Rob Leigh (artist) — Well, I was really liking this one for a long time but the ending left me scratching my head a bit. It was fun but maybe a bit too much playing around with time. Like the Metamorpho story, these guys used the medium to their advantage. I really liked when they had newspapers inside of newspaper. I can see these artists working on WC again.
The Demon and Catwoman by Walter Simonson (writer), Brian Stelfreeze (artist) – I wanted to like this one more than I did. I thought pairing Catwoman and Etrigan was genius but the two didn’t get as much interaction as I would have liked considering Morgaine’s evil plans. I think I liked the first and last issues the best for this entry because that’s when they got to be themselves. The art made the ladies look a little funky at times but it worked for the darker story.
Hawkman by Kyle Baker – The Hawkman story was very strange to me. First he was trying to save an airplane in trouble, then they crash on Dinosaur Island, THEN there’s an alien invasion. It just felt a little all over the place to me. Yes, Hawkman diving into a T-Rex’s mouth at the end was very fun to see but definitely couldn’t make up for this bland story. I was not a fan of the art from the get-go and the creepy anime girl in this last installment didn’t help any.
I still don’t like touching newspaper but Wednesday Comic’s format sorta grew on me. Instead of reading it on Wednesdays with the rest of my stack, I saved it for the weekends and read it leisurely over breakfast. It became quite the enjoyable routine. Mark Chiarello, editor of the entire run, deserves a lot of recognition. Not only did he come up with the idea, he kept it running smoothly and on-time for the entire twelve weeks. Even though I didn’t like every one of the strips I still think the experiment was successful and I truly hope they go for it again down the road. One of these days I’d like to read each story straight through which, now that I think of it, makes me wonder how this series will be collected. Either way, I’d conclude that Wednesday Comics was worth the price tag and the trouble of folding and unfolding. When I average out the separate scores I get 2.8. Since I don’t have a .8 star I’ll bump it up to a well-deserved 3.
BLACKEST NIGHT: SUPERMAN #2 (OF 3) – Still loving the use of the emotional auras here, lots of action and a very classic horror movie feel.
DETECTIVE COMICS #857 – Wow. Way to end an arc. I can’t wait to see more of Kate and Alice.
JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #37 – Odds-altering tech? Really? The transitional Justice League in this transitional arc wound up being pretty boring.
POWER GIRL #5 – Male robot sex slave. I love you Palmiotti. The cat-washing scene is worth the price of admission though.
SUPERGIRL #45 – The Metropolis 3 have come back to Metropolis to clear their names, too bad Cat Grant and General Lane are doing everything they can to prevent that.
My pull list for this week:
BATMAN: WIDENING GYRE #2 (OF 6)
BLACKEST NIGHT: TITANS #2 (OF 3)
GOTHAM CITY SIRENS #4
GREEN LANTERN #46
JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA 80-PAGE GIANT
JUSTICE SOCIETY OF AMERICA #31
SUPERMAN #692
TEEN TITANS #75
WONDER WOMAN #36
Which two should I review for DoubleDCoverage #28?
October 6th, 2009 at 7:26 am
Detective Comics totally blew my mind.