Comics of the Week - No More New 52

The last week of the New 52 was not as strong as the rest. This week gave us I, Vampire, which I only picked up after some buzz was generated on the webs, and wish I hadn't. Not sure what the story even was, to be honest. Also, Savage Hawkman, which is filled with plot points that defy even a glancing logic and the introduction of Venom into the DCnU. I wish I could say I read Superman #1, but I have yet to be able to finish it. So many words! Many of them redundant. Then there's these 3. . . .

Aquaman may seem like a lame hero, but when you really look at his powers, he's not lame at all. His body is adapted to withstand the intense pressure of the bottom of the deepest ocean, which results in him being nearly invulnerable and super strong when on land. As he points out in this issue, he does not talk to fish, but rather can telepathically connect with parts of their brain to get them to act. This part of their brain is shared by humans, and in past stories he's been able to cause seizures in humans. In short, Aquaman can kick your ass. Easily. Still, he never gets any respect. Geoff Johns and Ivan Reis have put a comic together that manages to address all the jokes and still make Aquaman a powerful, compelling, character. I laughed out loud several times reading this, and each moment lead to another moment that dispelled the joke and showed Aquaman as the tough guy he's supposed to be. I don't know if the humor of this issue can be maintained throughout a series without coming off as one note, but I hope they find a way. This was just fun superhero comics like nothing else I've seen in the relaunch.

Francis Manupaul is an artist with a capital A as far as I'm concerned. His style perfectly matches the kinetic energy of something like The Flash. There's also an element of design in the layouts of this book, particularly in the title page, that tells you he's not just thinking about his figures, but the whole package. This book is beautiful to look at. The story, though, is not that great. The dialogue is pretty clunky and redundant in spots. I really wish that Manupaul was just the artist on this book instead of co-writer with Brian Buccelato, who I am not familiar with at all. With a better writer this book would be special, like the first few issues of the last Flash ongoing series. Instead, it's just an OK story that you can't take your eyes off of.

I happen to agree with the criticisms of last week's Catwoman and Red Hood and the Outlaws as being objectionable representations of women, though I think the point was made and some of the critics are now just overstating their concerns. What's interesting is that one of the criticisms was what would little girls think when seeing naked, blank, Starfire posing and having sex in a book that was rated T for Teen. Valid point. However, there's also violence to consider. This week gave us Fury of Firestorm #1, also rated T for Teen, which opened with a brutal scene in which a young boy watches terrorists slit his father's throat before his eyes. I have no problem with violence in my comics and I hate censorship. However, it's interesting that the violence in this issue, and really in most of the new 52 books, hasn't been brought up by the same critics of the sexuality.  Are they not troubled with that same little girl reading this book? It seems to me there's a double standard when showing concern here, particularly when this book is co-written by Gail Simone, a female creator, and Ethan Van Sciver. The book itself, possibly, has the potential to deal with race issues, but unfortunately, the story seems a little convoluted, at least so far. I still think the potential is there and I hope this book evolves into something more than this first issue, but (and I never thought I'd find myself saying this) I hope they tone down the violence as I think the possibility of having the main characters discuss race relation issues in a realistic way, is one that should reach a wider audience.

Comics of the Week

Flashpoint: Batman Knight of Vengeance #1 brings together the team of Brian Azzarello and Eduardo Risso who gave us the brilliant 100 Bullets. That alone is enough to make this something to look forward to. As I've said all along, the Flashpoint tie ins are going to be the best part of the event. In this case, that couldn't be more true. Here we have Batman, a gritty Batman, who is out for vengeance against criminals (familiar so far) because he lost his son. In the Flashpoint world, you see, Bruce Wayne is dead. Instead, Thomas Wayne, his father, survived that fateful night in Crime Alley after seeing his son shot dead in front of him. And as any parent can attest, that's a whole different type of anger. This Batman is not playing around. Azzarello manages to give us a fully formed character in Thomas Wayne in one issue. This old, grizzled and hardened man is not open to bullshit of any kind, as Batman or as Thomas Wayne. His life mission has lead him to build a casino in order to bring the criminals to him. He's managed to privatize the Gotham police department. He's not messing around. And all the while, he's got what Barry Allen told him about a different reality in which his son is alive knocking around in the back of his mind. This will only be a 3 issue series, but I would love it if they later had a series covering Thomas Wayne's past in this world. Great material here.

Flashpoint #2 continues from the first issue with Barry Allen explaining who he is to Thomas Wayne. We also get glimpses of Deathstroke, Wonder Woman and Aquaman in this alternate reality. I like the idea of the Amazonians and Atlanteans being at war. It just makes sense that it would happen this way. All in all it was pretty good. There's interesting ideas here and the last panel, in which we see the results of Barry Allen trying to recreate the accident that made him the Flash so he could get his powers back was kind of funny to me because what happens is what you'd expect to happen in real life.

Fear Itself #3 is a sharp contrast to Flashpoint. Just like the last issue, not much goes on here. The main book of the Fear Itself event reads like a Readers Digest version of what's going on in the other books. Granted, it all sounds interesting, but then why even have this book out? Why not do away with the actual Fear Itself book and just have the event take place in the rest of the books? I am sticking with my decision to only follow the main book, but once it's over, I may go back and read some of the tie ins. Overall, though, I couldn't really tell you what's going on in the event. This issue doesn't even serve the purpose of bringing it all together except to set up that Steve Rogers will likely be Captain America again by the end of the event. This is a good example of why these big events are so frustrating to fans. One year, they are used to make sweeping changes and the next they are used to set things back to what they were before. All the while, telling us how things will never be the same.