DoubleDCoverage #33

Posted on November 11, 2009 by Jill aka The Nerdy Bird
Tags: Anthrax, Comics, DC, DoubleDCoverage, Jill Pantozzi, Lobo, Lobo: Highway to Hell, Review, Sam Kieth, Scott Ian, Scott McDaniel, The Great Ten, Tony Bedard

Hello again GEN readers! It’s Jill a.k.a. The Nerdy Bird back with this week’s installment of DoubleDCoverage. China’s new super-team are back but are they really great? A rock star takes on Lobo and that equals fun for all. Reviews for The Great Ten #1 and Lobo: Highway to Hell #1 are ahead. Also, check out my star ratings for my other pulls from last Wednesday!

THE GREAT TEN #1 (OF 10)

This series has been so long in the making I almost forgot where the characters were last seen and why everyone was so eager for them to get their own book. You may remember The Great Ten from their appearances in the weekly series 52 or the now-cancelled Checkmate. Unfortunately I don’t remember much except August General (and that’s only because he looks badass) but that’s a good thing I think. It means I’m looking at this issue like a new reader and it’s writer Tony Bedard and artist Scott McDaniel’s job to get me up to speed.

We certainly get a history lesson in this issue, just maybe not the one we were hoping for. Five thousand years of Chinese culture is quickly summed up to let us know what kind of country this new “super-team” is protecting. The team is hurriedly introduced but it’s member Accomplished Perfect Physician who’s story will be told here. For a man who originally wanted to be a doctor he got his wish, he just had to take a much longer road to get there than most. Many years ago as a soldier in the People’s Liberation Army, he was charged with breaking up illegal demonstrations but wound up with blood on his hands. He was almost killed himself for deserting but was saved by a doctor, the parent of the man he killed in combat. The man was set to take on the mantle of Accomplished Perfect Physician, a name sixteen others before him had carried. Now it would pass to the soldier. Among his many powers, he’s now able to cure sicknesses with a simple hum or a whistle.

In present day, APP and a few other members of The Great Ten are sent to break up a riot in Tibet. The situation is all too familiar for APP and he writes a formal complaint stating his dissatisfaction with being sent on the mission. His beliefs come into conflict with those giving his orders and he’s not happy about having to carry them out but does anyway. His beliefs also come into conflict with August General, who he’s had experience with before their time on the team together. Actually, it seems that not many on the team get along at all. The group will have to band together soon enough as the orchestrators behind the riot show themselves and turn out to be gods.

Like I said, I didn’t remember much about these characters. I was expecting to get a clear sense of who they were and what their team was all about and I have to say this issue just didn’t do accomplish that. Bedard’s work with APP was excellent and I have a good grasp of that character now, but everyone else? Not so much. That being said, this is a ten-issue mini-series so there’s room and time to explore them all. I just think it would have been more beneficial to see them as a whole first. McDaniel’s art feels perfectly suited for this book. I loved his work on Green Arrow and I expect he won’t disappoint here. I’m usually not a fan of the longer mini-series so I won’t continue to pick this up. It just didn’t do enough to grab me. Something like World of New Krypton keeps me reading because it’s connected to an overarching story that’s going on in several other DC books but The Great Ten is going to spend time exploring characters that rarely show up anywhere else. I’m still interested in learning more about them but I think this one is best left for trade paperback.

LOBO: HIGHWAY TO HELL #1 (OF 2)

Scott Ian from the metal band Anthrax takes a stab at writing comics. Scott Ian. From Anthrax. You’ve seen this guy right? I’d be hard-pressed to find a more suitable candidate to take on the larger-than-life personality of Lobo than him. In the 64-pages of this first issue he goes places only Lobo should go. You’ll see what I mean.

Lobo’s spending a quiet day at home, drinking, watching Lost, when all of a sudden a few dolphins come crashing through his window. Now, normally Lobo would be happy to see his flippered friends, except these creatures came stabbed with a note from Satan telling Lobo to call him. Bad move. He’s been banned from Hell but that’s exactly where he’s headed now. First, he has to figure out how to get in. He forces his way onto Charon’s cruise ship heading down the river Styx. Lobo’s having a fine time onboard, what with all the hookers and booze, but he gets impatient and winds up killing Charon by accident. This starts something of a rampage on the ship and of course the only one left standing is Lobo. Not even the ship survives.

His luck doesn’t improve after swimming to shore. He steps on a bee and gets shit on by a bird. The fuss he makes about the bee sting makes me wonder if Ian may have had a similar incident himself and holds a grudge. Lobo does, however, manage to stumble across another bar and his spirits are quickly lifted by the promise of alcohol. A few beheadings of fellow patrons later and he’s off to downtown Hell. An alarm is immediately raised because, well, he was banished and all and is caught in a swarm of demons loyal to Satan. After putting them all in their place he marches his way to the red man’s front door and finds something unexpected – a cute little girl with blonde curls.

This book is everything you’d expect and nothing you’d ever imagine all at the same time. Lobo is literally on a highway to hell but it almost feels like a leisurely Sunday afternoon stroll through a beautiful park. Sam Kieth, the artist on this book, is no stranger to Lobo. He wrote and drew the Batman/Lobo: Deadly Serious mini-series a few years ago and he’s just as gruesome and comical here. Ian puts Lobo in some seriously wacky situations and Kieth executes them in a way no one else could. My only problem with the issue was that for the size of the book, it felt lacking in content just a bit. But it was so entertaining I didn’t really care. Who knows if Ian would be successful writing another book or character, I just know he’s perfect for Lobo.

SECRET SIX #15 – John Ostrander and Jim Calafiore step in for a one-shot that navigates the dark corners of Deadshot’s mind. Meaning, all of it.

SUPERMAN: WORLD OF NEW KRYPTON #9 (OF 12) – I realized this series is almost over and a lot of the threads are going to have to start coming together soon. This issue felt like it was cooling it’s heels a bit.