The final week of all-new #1 issues has come and gone, and the DC Rejiggering stands fully revealed at last! I plan on doing a full retrospective later in the week, so for now I’ll just focus on capsule reviews for the titles I picked up this week. We actually have a pretty good crop, with DC seemingly saving some of the best for last. I also got to finally read Teen Titans, starring my favorite DC character, Tim Drake. And I’m confident in saying that I’m happy with his new status quo. Red Robin as leader of the Teen Titans is a good direction for him, compared to just Red Robin solo hero from  before the rejiggering. I like the costume change too.

New costume/Old Costume

But I’ll get to the larger retrospective later. For now, on to the reviews!

Aquaman #1

Aquaman: A contender for best comic of the DCnU is Aquaman #1! And that’s no surprise. Written by writer extraordinaire Geoff Johns and drawn by the amazing pencils of Ivan Reis, it’s clear that the pair set out to prove just how awesome and badass Aquaman really is. He’s heroic, he’s nice, he kicks ass and he’s got internal conflict. Aquaman is fantastic in this issue, someone you can really get behind and root for as both a superhero and as a person. He’s back to his classic costume with this issue (as opposed to hook-hand or grizzly beard), and the art is stunningly bright. His orange shirt never looked so powerful or regal. I wasn’t reading the series Brightest Day prior to the revamp, so I don’t know Aquaman’s status quo. The revamp seems to be taking him back-to-basics, but I’m not sure if he’s starting over from scratch. Frankly, it doesn’t matter.

The book suffers, though, because Johns spends most of his time playing devil’s advocate to all the haters and jokes about Aquaman. It starts with some cops who are embarrassed that Aquaman stopped the bad guys instead of them, as well as the bad guys who laugh at the very idea that Aquaman would try and stop them. But Aquaman defeats them with nary a word, just straight-up trident badassery. Then in a delightful scene where Aquaman goes to get a bite to eat at a seafood restaurant, some douchey, hipster ‘blogger’ won’t shut up as he slides into the opposite seat in Aquaman’s booth. The guy just launches into a tirade of how everybody thinks Aquaman is lame and is nobody’s favorite superhero, and he asks Aquaman how that makes him feel.

Aquaman just gives the guy a cold stare and leaves the restaurant, tipping his waitress with riches from the bottom of the sea so that she can afford her kid’s college education. He’s such a nice guy!

Tell that to the crooks in the truck

So, brilliant comic, doing a great job in explaining the character, setting up his internal conflict and introducing us to some mysterious and deadly villains from somewhere beneath that big Trench in the Atlantic Ocean. I was excited for his issue when it was first announced, and I’m definitely on board for more. Haters be damned!

The Flash 01

The Flash: I was enjoying this comic until about midway through, when it suddenly became a buddy movie starring the Flash and a poorly introduced old friend of his named Miguel. I’ve always been mildly interested in the Flash as a character, but never enough to pick up his comic. So I decided to give this one a try on a whim. It sets a good foundation for the Flash, but as I said, the book falls apart after we’re introduced to Miguel. I don’t know my Flash history, but I’m pretty sure he’s brand new. Miguel is Flash’s old college pal, and now he’s working for some bad guys…or maybe he’s not. A nice mystery is set up, but Miguel is introduced so poorly and uninterestingly that I just don’t really care.

Let me first say that the art in this comic is fantastic! Francis Manapul is both writer and artist for this issue, and he’s perfectly in sync when it comes to mixing the two together to create dynamic visual storytelling. The page below is the Flash falling off a roof and using his vibrational frequencies to survive the fall. Art like this makes you really popular in superhero comics. Its inventive and stylish, something that’s more rare than you’d think.

Comic book panels and falling seem to go well together

The Flash is Barry Allen, and it seems he’s being reset for the Rejiggering. He’s no longer married to Iris West (though she does appear as a possible love interest), he’s working at the police station and, as we’ll find out in Teen Titans, he has no connection to Kid Flash. So it’s a back-to-basics Flash, and I’m cool with that. His status quo is set up nicely, though I don’t think we get that great of an introduction to his character. Still, a well-handled introduction.

It’s just Miguel that messes everything up. See that guy that Flash throws through a window in that first picture? That’s Miguel. He and his band of thieves attack a museum, and the Flash is there to intervene. Once the dust settles, that guy that Flash threw through a window is dead…but nobody seems too concerned that Flash might have killed a guy by throwing him through a window!! Barry doesn’t seem very bothered by it, though there are some vague hints that something else might be at play. He recognizes the corpse as his old college buddy, and we’re treated to a flashback of Barry and Miguel running from something involving girls. There are some lame jokes about Barry running (get it? He’s the Flash?), and it’s a short flashback. Then Miguel comes to Barry’s apartment later in the issue, seemingly alive and well. First, though, we get another great shot of the Flash zipping around his apartment working on the mystery.

He's the fastest man alive...in boxers

For some reason they start running again, shoe-horning in  a modern day scene to mimic the flashback. It’s awkward and too sudden. Then some bad guys start chasing them, and again it’s just very weird that Barry has suddenly been wrapped up in this the way it plays out. He fakes a fall into a river so that he can change into the Flash and find out what’s going on. That’s definitely an awkward excuse to get into costume. And then we end with the mystery that the bad guys chasing them are all clones (or something) of Miguel. Not a very interesting mystery to me, and I feel they should have spent more time introducing us to Barry and the Flash instead of his buddy Miguel.

Green Lantern: New Guardians #1

Green Lantern: New Guardians: Otherwise known as Kyle Raynor’s book. All four of the human Green Lanterns star in three separate Green Lantern books, and all three books have been OK. They haven’t been rebooted, and are just continuing on as if nothing was rebooted. Kyle Raynor is my favorite of the Earth Green Lanterns…but I’m more of a fan of the Green Lantern Corps as a concept than any individual members. If I was forced to choose, Kyle would be it. He’s a nice guy and a fun protagonist, his schtick being that he’s a graphic artist and so all of his GL constructs are clever and imaginative. The two-page spread of him saving a falling construction crane is beautiful. I’ll post it below.

This issue is a nice introduction to Kyle as a person. We get a flashback to his origin (though it’s not labeled as such, and I guess the reader is just supposed to know it’s a flashback to his origin), and a small scene in a restaurant where we chats with some friends to let us know that he’s a struggling graphic artist. Cut to the present day, and he’s one of four Green Lanterns cruising the planet. Again, writer Tony Bedard seems to expect us to know a lot about the Green Lanterns, and I do, so I don’t mind. Kyle also gets a chance to be heroic and interact with some people.

I bet they'll expect union wages

Kyle is also not the only Lantern floating around. As we’ve seen so far in the series Red Lanterns, there is a whole rainbow of different colored Corps and this is the book that’s going to focus on them. I’m glad for that. I’m a huge fan of the multi-colored Corps, so it’s cool that my favorite Green Lantern is going to star in this book. I look forward to everyone interacting together, even if they start out all wanting to kill Kyle Raynor. Should make for a good story.

Justice League Dark #1

Justice League Dark: This is a weird comic. I guess that’s appropriate. But it’s so weird that it’s turned me off the book. This was another comic that I picked up on a whim just to give it a try, and it definitely didn’t win me over. Most, if not all, of the main characters get a brief introduction as we start from the ground up in putting this magic-focused team together. This is a niche book, created for the fans of these characters, like John Constantine, Shade the Changing Man, Zatanna and more. I’m just not a fan of magic stories or most of these characters. And the story doesn’t win me over either. There’s some poorly introduced magical threat, a witch, I think, and the normal Justice League just can’t handle it.

Speaking of which, how stupid is DC that the first real appearance of their new Justice League happens in this issue in nothing more than an extended cameo? It’s also our first look at the new Cyborg. If you recall in Justice League #1, DC is starting from the beginning and telling the story of how the team came together, as well as how Victor Stone became Cyborg. Justice League #1 tells the story of Batman meeting Green Lantern for the first time, with Vic as a normal person playing high school football. So the Justice League doesn’t get together in Justice League #1. Yet here they are acting as a team in Justice League Dark.

And fighting a tornado made out of razor-sharp witch's teeth! I told you it was weird

Way to drop the ball on that one DC. So much for a grand entrance.

Anyway, like I said, this is a niche book. It will appeal to fans of these characters and possibly fans of magic-based stories. I’m neither, so I just wasn’t a fan of this book. None of the characters come off as particularly interesting, and a lot is riding on our past knowledge pre-revamp. Not for me.

Superman #1

Superman: This was a fun book and a so-so to good introduction to Superman. Just like Action Comics earlier this month, it misses out on the big, bold iconic introduction to the Man of Steel. Here was a chance for DC to really push the heroism and awesomeness of the most famous superhero in the world. I still remember getting chills when Superman saved that airplane at the start of Superman Returns. But Superman’s intro in this book is kind of flat, since he’s pissed off that the old Daily Planet building is being torn down to make way for a bigger, better newspaper. He’s also miffed at the corporate ownership of the newspaper, and how there will now be a bigger focus on multimedia instead of good old-fashioned print journalism.

Considering I’m a newspaper reporter myself, I can definitely appreciate Clark Kent’s desire to keep the integrity and respect that a print newspaper has over the flashy, less-focused fluff of a television station.

Take it from me, newspapers are definitely better and more thorough with a story than TV news.

If only all retirements were like this

Anyway, Superman gets to be really heroic in this issue, which is great. There’s some mysterious fire alien monster, and Superman uses his powers to defeat it. The old, classic Daily Planet globe from the top of the building even lends a hand, creating a proper send-off to the iconic globe that has graced movies, television and more. And I’ve as written in the past, I don’t mind Superman’s new costume. He’s still Superman to me.

Lois Lane and Jimmy Olsen are still around as supporting characters, though Lois has now been promoted to be head editor of the multimedia division. She’ll be in charge of the TV station and more instead of being her classic reporter role. Jimmy seems to be a part of the camera crew instead of his usual role as a photographer. I’m interested in seeing where this is going. Another big change post-revamp is that Clark and Lois are no longer married, nor are they even dating or flirting. Seems like Clark might be pining for Lois, but she’s oblivious to him.

In fact, in a socially awkward ending, we’re introduced to Lois’ new boyfriend, John Carroll. The two are shagging like rabbits when Clark shows up at her door to apologize for being such a pouty jerk at the changes in the newspaper. You can practically feel the awkward tension dripping from the panel as Clark meets the barely clothed John and he comments how he and Lois were ‘celebrating’ her promotion. Poor Superman.

Teen Titans #1

Teen Titans: The comic I was most excited for in the rejiggering definitely lives up to the hype! Former Robin Tim Drake stars as Red Robin, having moved on from his partnership with Batman into an underground, Internet-based hero. But a mysterious agency called N.O.W.H.E.R.E. and the growing number of teenage superheroes is prompting Drake to come out from behind his computer and take a stand. He begins recruiting these teens, starting with Wonder Girl, all the while fighting off attacks from N.O.W.H.E.R.E. Just like Justice League #1, this issue appears to be taking its time putting the team together. But we get a lot more action and more characterization than Justice League, I think. Along with Red Robin and Wonder Girl, we also get a glimpse of Kid Flash, Superboy and more.

I loved this issue, though it wasn’t perfect. The art is fantastically detailed and clear, so I’m a huge fan. Tim Drake comes off as completely badass, which is what I wanted. He’s a former Robin, trained by Batman, and it shows. Teen Titans is getting a big do-over with the Rejiggering, so all these characters who used to be friends are now strangers. So we get Tim’s first ever meeting with Cassie Sandsmark, Wonder Girl. It’s fun, with Tim getting right down to business to try and convince Cassie to reveal herself. He already knows she’s Wonder Girl, so she can stop hiding. But it takes an attack from N.O.W.H.E.R.E. to get her to power up.

So what should we call you instead? 'Late for dinner'? I crack me up

The two start up a nice, albeit strained, friendship. There may even be the kindling of some romance, but only maybe.

As I said, Kid Flash also debuts. The issue starts with him trying to help out firefighters in a burning building. He’s dressed in a homemade costume, and seems pretty obsessed with getting on the news. He rushes around using super speed, but in the end just gets in the firefighters’ way and causes an explosion. Everyone barely escapes with their lives. Red Robin is monitoring the situation, and he shakes his head at Kid Flash’s idiocy.

Not everybody can afford the usual superhero tailor

Which brings us to the weirdest part of this issue, what the news reporter calls: “A problem that is plaguing not just America – but countries around the world.” Teenage superheros.

What? That just sounds weird. This is part of DC’s problem in that they are doing a poor job of explaining the world. They’ve said before, and have shown it in Justice League and Action Comics, that in this DCU, people aren’t as accepting of superheroes. Yet in most other titles, the heroes get along great with the public and the police. Heroes and super-powers seem common place. So it just comes off as strange and forced that the news is complaining about a “plague” of teenage superheroes. As if all teenage superheroes are wicked and evil or something. It sets up the problem that the Teen Titans need to come together to solve, but it just sounds weird.

Still, good book. N.O.W.H.E.R.E. also appeared in Superboy #1 by the same writer, Scott Lobdell. It looks like the two comics will tell overlapping stories, which is cool. Though I suppose it means I’m going to have to buy more Superboy comics.

Voodoo #1

Voodoo: I already wrote a lot about Voodoo here. There’s not much else to tell. The art is great, but artist Sami Basri is basically just drawing a lot of half-naked women through the issue. The title character is a stripper, and she spends the issue stripping. It’s an overuse of nudity to try and titillate the reader into buying a previously untested and barely known comic book character. In the end though, I’m curious enough about the twist ending to buy another issue or two.