Wonder Woman #27 – Review

By: Brian Azzarello (story), Cliff Chiang (art), Matthew Wilson (colors)

The Story: Diana’s not the first person to leave a home visit in tears.

The Review: About a month ago, I had a friendly debate with some buddies about the relative merits of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.  At first, I couldn’t help being a little stunned that they preferred the comically adventurous Hobbit over the epic saga of LOTR.  As we talked on, however, I realized it’s those very same qualities that makes Hobbit easier to take in and enjoy, while LOTR turns people off with its obsession of building its mythology.

I was reminded of all this reading the latest chapter of Wonder Woman because Azzarello has gotten the title into the same kind of trouble as LOTR.  There’s no doubt he’s succeeded in making the series different from any Wonder Woman series before it, especially in his vision for the Olympians and how their mythological traditions intersect with her superhero roots.  This is not unlike how J.R.R. Tolkien took Arthurian legend and updated it within the contemporary fantasy genre.  The big difference is Tolkien laid out clear paths for his characters to tread, and to date, our starring heroine has mostly stumbled from plot to plot like signposts in the dark.

Wonder Woman #25 – Review

By: Brian Azzarello (story) Goran Sudžuka (art), Matthew Wilson (colors)

The Story: Sibling rivalries take on new meaning when gods are involved.

The Review: One of the frequent criticisms of this title, and one that I often levy myself, is that Wonder Woman feels strangely out of place in a series where she’s supposedly the star.  Perhaps this is evidence that Azzarello is not so much interested in his heroine herself as the possibilities of her world.  There’s no denying that he’s taken her mythological background and mined it extravagantly, turning the Olympians into the best part of the series.

So he can hardly be blamed for spending so much of each issue featuring their various schemes at the cost of crowding out Diana.  And I use “crowding out” very purposely; with us barely noticing it, Azzarello has given Wonder Woman one of the biggest ongoing casts of all the new 52 titles.  Give any two or three Olympians a scene of their own, tack on some panels for Diana’s core crew, and naturally she’ll wind up with little page-time for herself.

Superman/Wonder Woman #2 – Review

By: Charles Soule (story), Tony S. Daniel (pencils), Batt (inks), Tomev Morey (colors)

The Story: When her boyfriend’s in trouble, Diana goes for her family hook-ups.

The Review: I’ve never been all that fond of the grab-bag style of comic book storytelling—you know, a plot in which all of a character’s biggest villains get thrown in at once for some dubious reason and ultimately get disposed en masse.  This seems like it would increase the scale of a story, but the effect is often overinflated.  As with most things, quantity has little relation to quality, and the more villains we deal with, the less consequential the story feels.

This is especially true once you get to a certain caliber of villain, the ones who can ordinarily support an entire arc or more by themselves.  Crowd them together and you may give the hero a bigger challenge, but you’ll diminish their viability.  So from the moment Doomsday revealed itself at the end of last issue, I’ve been hoping Soule would do what almost no writer has done and focus on finding any layers that may have been lying in secret within the monster.  Soule disappoints by instead eroding Doomsday’s importance with the appearance of a more defined Superman foe, which feels suspiciously like the start of a grab-bag story.

Wonder Woman #24 – Review

By: Brian Azzarello (story) Goran Sudžuka (art), Matthew Wilson (colors)

The Story: Diana learns that family reunions are indeed the worst.

The Review: The end of Villains Month marks the official start of the DCU’s third year since its relaunch.  Needless to say, its landscape has changed a great deal during this period of time.  Nearly half of the original 52 titles are with us no longer, most of them deservedly, and many of those that are left have lost the spirit that made them seem so exciting when they debuted.  Only a few, like Wonder Woman, remain steadfast to the direction and principles they started with.

As critical as I’ve been about certain points of execution, I have to admire how Azzarello has managed to stick to his guns on this title, somehow staying above the fray of tacky promotional campaigns, pointless crossovers, and pushy Big Events.  In a market saturated with angst and loud, hyperactive action, the fact that Wonder Woman still makes a living off mythological intrigue and family dynamics is remarkable indeed.

Wonder Woman #23.2: First Born – Review

By: Brian Azzarello (story), Aco (art), Matthew Wilson (colors)

The Story: Needless to say, First Born has a well-deserved chip on his shoulder.

The Review: After introducing the First Born and building up to what was supposed to be a huge battle with Wonder Woman, their actual confrontation turned out a little disappointing.  To be clear, the fighting itself was fine, but the oomph wasn’t there; something definitely felt missing.  In retrospect, it just comes down to how new First Born is to the scene.  Not only does he lack a long, personal history with Wonder Woman, he doesn’t have much history at all.

The timing of Villains Month couldn’t have better under such circumstances.  I don’t know if Azzarello is clever or lucky or what, but he’s been able to use both of DC’s promotional campaigns to his narrative advantage.  Just as #0 developed a connection between Diana and Ares that proved crucial to later arcs on this series, this issue feels very much like a natural coda to last month’s events as well as a strong prelude to the next.

Wonder Woman #23 – Review

By: Brian Azzarello (story), Cliff Chiang (art), Matthew Wilson (colors)

The Story: Now’s our chance to see which era had the most badass warriors.

The Review: Troubled as some people were by the slow pace Wonder Woman had been running at for some time, it’s been even more troubling to see the title suddenly speed up in the last few issues.  Last issue in particular was something of a disappointment for how much it truncated Diana and Co.’s time on New Genesis when we had all been so longing to see the Fourth World’s standing in the new DCU.  It was the very definition of a missed opportunity.

In the same fashion, we’ve all hankered to see the ultimate throwdown between Diana and the First Born, yet now doesn’t seem like the right time for it.  To make the First Born a truly worthy adversary in Wonder Woman’s gallery, there has to be time for the two to develop a relationship, even an antagonistic one.  Given that in context, she’s only known him for about a few hours (setting aside the time she spent comatose), having a final confrontation now seems premature.

Wonder Woman #20 – Review

By: Brian Azzarello (story), Cliff Chiang & Goran Sudzuka (art), Matthew Wilson (colors)

The Story: Diana versus Diana—round two.

The Review: I don’t believe I’m the first to compare the kind of intrigue that goes on in this title to that shared by any good mafia story, where family affections and attachments are ultimately subordinated to ruthless power plays, suspicion, and constant backstabbing.  This free-for-all is made even more interesting by the building of alliances, their eventual dissolutions, and the new ones that take their place.

In Wonder Woman, we’ve got a few set camps and their dear leaders: Apollo with Artemis and Dionysus representing the current Olympian regime; Hermes partnered with Demeter in a mission from some undisclosed higher power; Poseidon in cahoots with the First Born, who plans to retake Olympus for himself; and then Diana with her merry little crew.  Although all of these folks are related in some manner, only Diana’s group functions like a family—a “weird, wonderful family,” as Zola says.

Wonder Woman #19 – Review

By: Brian Azzarello (story), Goran Sudźuka (art), Tony Akins (pencils), Dan Green (inks), Matthew Wilson (colors)

The Story: A god can do with worse names than Zeke.

The Review: As we begin the title’s fourth arc, it seems only fair that longtime investors in this series get a chance to consider what we want from the story.  While I do appreciate that Azzarello has a very specific direction for his heroine, I feel it’s well past time for him to up the pace a bit.  He’s spent a lot of time establishing the principal characters, mythologies, and interacting forces for his plot; now’s the time to lose the reins and let them go wild on each other.

It seems Azzarello’s about to do just that by the end of this issue, though we have to sit through quite a bit of set-up first, not all of which seems entirely necessary or even useful.  The intro with Apollo, Artemis, and Dionysus basically reiterates most of the info we already know, and does little to round out their personalities or goals.  It doesn’t get simpler than gods wanting to retain their positions of power and wanting to shut down any threat to them, right?

Young Romance #1 – Review

By: Too many to list—check out the review.

The Story: Superhero love is a many-splendored thing…

The Review: Young Romance is one of those titles that a proper reviewer probably should feel a little bit of embarrassment about reading, given its hopelessly gimmicky nature.  Even so, I do kind of like the grab-bag format of these things, and I appreciate that DC has enough of a sense of humor to do something this cheesy.  Besides, with the mix of talent involved, you never know if you might run into a gem of a feature, promising better things from the creators involved.

Wonder Woman #14 – Review

By: Brian Azzarello (story), Tony Akins (pencils), Dan Green & Rick Burchett (inks), Matthew Wilson (colors)

The Story: Even the Olympians have the one family member they don’t like to talk about.

The Review: I’ve come down pretty hard on Geoff Johns for his weak-sauce approach to Wonder Woman in Justice League, and a lot of my ire comes from comparing his take to Azzarello’s undeniably impressive version of her in her own ongoing.  It makes me wonder if Johns even reads Wonder Woman.  How can you reduce the demi-goddess of that book into the often uncertain and simple-minded princess who doesn’t even know how friendship works?

Even though I still think she remains a kind of unrelatable character, Diana strikes such a compelling balance between warrior and nurturer, in a way few superheroes from either of the Big Two do.  It’s true that given the connection between her and Siracca, it wouldn’t be that extraordinary for them to reach an understanding.  Nevertheless, how often do you see your heroes showing compassion and offering peace to their enemies?  How often do you see such unashamed, non-cynical love from a character?

Wonder Woman #13 – Review

By: Brian Azzarello (story), Tony Akins (pencils, Dan Green (inks), Matthew Wilson (colors)

The Story: Nothing starts off your divine reign like a pool party.

The Review: From day one, Azzarello has taken advantage of one defining feature of the Greek gods, the one that continues to capture our fascination to this day: the power struggles and family divisions within their divine community.  After reading any number of myths, you’ll notice how every time a conflict breaks out among them, sides are immediately taken.  Natural alliances arise (e.g. Apollo and Artemis), but more often than not, surprising changes of allegiances occur.

This never-ending cycle of devotion and backstabbing remains as intriguing as ever.  Apollo took his father’s throne for one reason only, and that was to protect himself.  Inviting his half-brothers and sisters to the renovated Olympus isn’t a signal of trust, but one of mutual benefit.  Aside from his sister, none of the others express much in the way of loyalty (Hephaestus claims he came only for the sake of family), and others reject Apollo’s overtures outright.  As with all fiction, the absences mean more than what’s present.

Wonder Woman #12 – Review

By: Brian Azzarello (story), Cliff Chiang (art), Matthew Wilson (colors)

The Story: In business terms, Mount Olympus is going through a period of “reorganization.”

The Review: Over a year ago—and it makes me feel a bit odd and anxious to say that—I wrote in an op-ed with SoldierHawk the kind of things I wanted to see from Wonder Woman to make her more of the icon she should be:

“I’d simply like to know more about her makeup as a person… We already have plenty of stories that depict her as both warrior and humanitarian.   We need to see stories where she embraces the other roles that make a woman: as sister, mentor, friend, even as employee or lover… If anything, these are the things she truly lacks in contrast to her male peers, and why the public at large can respect her, but can’t sympathize with her.  And really, it’s how much we sympathize with a character that makes them popular and beloved, regardless of whatever principles they represent.”

The DC relaunch seemed the perfect opportunity to achieve some of these things, and DC certainly offered some of the best talent to do it.  So how have they done?

Wonder Woman #11 – Review

By: Brian Azzarello (story), Cliff Chiang (art), Matthew Wilson (colors)

The Story: Wonder Woman in the Appalachian emergency room.

The Review: I think we tend to forget, in our experience of smooth political transitions and well-oiled government systems, how critical and damaging the vacuum of leadership can be.  Once it disappears, the chaos that follows rushes toward critical mass—a comment, I suppose, on our human nature as followers—with some striving to keep the status quo in place and others seeing it as an opportunity to change things up.

For the Greek pantheon, their view of Zeus’ absence depends largely on their essential natures, which Azzarello portrays with faithful attention to mythic tradition.  Clearly, the family boasts a number of go-getters, who spend the bulk of their time forging alliances and inviting favor for the inevitable battle for the throne.  It’s been fascinating, watching these Medici-style schemes play out, a series of power plays whose appeal is more cerebral than anything else.

Stormwatch #7 – Review

By: Paul Jenkins (writer), Ignacio Calero (penciller), Sean Parsons & Julio Ferreira (inkers), Pete Pantazis (colorist)

The Story: Add one more item to the “Nuclear Risks” list: alien beacon.

The Review: I’m just gonna put this out there: I believe Paul Cornell is one of the burgeoning great comic book writers out there.  Sure, he doesn’t have nearly the recognition that Grant Morrison, Matt Fraction, or Geoff Johns do, but I’d argue he can pen a script with the best of them.  Like all the greats, he has a very recognizable storytelling style completely idiosyncratic to him, which from the start made Stormwatch a totally distinctive series of its own.

In a way, such strong and inimitable writing is a double-edged sword; you really feel the painful end of it when once the writer departs and someone takes his place.  It’s not that the new guy (or gal) is necessarily deficient or ineffective in any way; it’s just not the same without the original around.  Unfortunately, that was always going to be the case with this title once Cornell left.

Then again, you can make the argument that Jenkins simply doesn’t have what it takes to follow in his predecessor’s footsteps.  If you have any experience with Jenkins’ writing from DC Universe Presents, you already have a good idea of the range of his ability: competent, wordy, and mostly blunt in the way he tackles theme and meaning.  Hence you have the personification of Pripyat (the Soviet Union town emptied by the Chernobyl disaster) hacking and wheezing into an oxygen mask as suffers the spread of his cancer.

Truthfully, Jenkins’ work would be serviceable enough if not for his completely bland take on the characters, characters whose voices have developed tremendous personality over the course of six issues, only for it all to be abandoned here.  All the wit, intelligence, and boldness you’ve grown to love have gone.  Perfect example: Jenny Quantum used to sport the perfect blend of precociousness, youthful malaise (“Okay.  I vote for you.  Whatever.”—one of her best lines, from #6), and pep.  Jenkins has reduced her to a default “action-exposition” dialogue and a running gag about wanting a puppy (“Pleeeaase?”).

Stormwatch #6 – Review

By: Paul Cornell (writer), Miguel Sepulveda (artist), Alex Sinclair & Pete Pantazis (colorists)

The Story: Just ‘cause you’re dying in space doesn’t mean you can’t get a little flirting on!

The Review: Ahh…nothing like a bunch of creative shake-ups to get the emotions flowing, huh?  By now, DC’s first wave of cancellations, replacements, and switcheroos is old news, but I’m sure the heated and anxious talk about it will go on even after the actual changes take place.  For the most part, I think DC made wise decisions across the board about what goes and what stays and who gets on or gets off which title.

Of all these, Cornell’s departure from Stormwatch signals much uncertainty for this title’s fate.  I don’t know if his leaving was a choice he made or one made for him, but whatever the case, it doesn’t bode well.  No offense to his replacement, Paul Jenkins, but after reading his largely pedestrian material on DC Universe Presents, I don’t have much confidence he has what it takes to follow in Cornell’s distinctive footsteps.

Over the course of a half-dozen issues, Cornell has established a very specific style and tone to Stormwatch, a potent mixture of lofty, breezy, and erudite which, you might imagine, very few writers can pull off.  Then there’s the sheer brilliance of his imagination.  Suppose someone other than Cornell—Jenkins, perhaps—had launched this title.  Would he have conceived of an alien city-space station hidden in Earth’s hyperspace, or a man for whom lying is a superpower, or moons that threaten planets with outstretched claws?  I tend to doubt it.

Very few other writers could have handled the developing attraction between Apollo and Midnighter with the respect and taste it needs to be taken seriously.  Too easily do people get caught up in the sensationalism or political implications of such a relationship.  Cornell shrugs all that off, letting the spark between the two heroes smolder until it finally comes out (so to speak) at a very sensible point, though “God, you’re hot” does throw subtlety out the window.

Stormwatch #5 – Review

By: Paul Cornell (writer), Miguel Sepulveda (artist), Allen Passalaqua (colorist)

The Story: You won’t believe what a liar he can be.

The Review: Sooner or later, Cornell had to address one of Stormwatch’s pet conceits: the premise that it’s been around since time immemorial, protecting Earth from all manner of threats from beyond the planet itself, resourced and funded by a mysterious, all-knowing group.  If Cornell really wants to sell this to us, he has to make the folks behind Stormwatch as impressive as he rumors them to be, otherwise Stormwatch as a whole loses credibility.

You see, the team itself is so chock-full of strong, take-no-nonsense personalities that whoever calls the shots on them has to be pretty powerful, both in ability and manner, to be taken seriously.  So it makes perfect sense when from out of nowhere, a supposed Cabinet man arrives, takes the team to task, and reorganizes them within the span of a few pages, with nary a care to their protests.

He doesn’t throw his weight around with just words, however.  Though we only get a glimpse of him in action, he seems capable of performing physics-bending feats almost negligently (“Let’s see, do I remember–?  Death pit, death pit…”), as when he sentences Adam One to death.  Don’t worry—as it turns out, death in the Stormwatch world is considered a kind of promotional stepping stone, a fact which tells you quite a lot about the exact nature of the Shadow Cabinet.

In assigning new leadership to the team, the Cabinet man spends some time musing over each member’s background.  While most of this is an annoying summation of everyone’s powers and abilities, which we’re pretty well-acquainted with by now, we do get some novel bits of info, some more useful (“[Jenny Quantum’s] father is a high-ranking military man, who still thinks she was murdered by terrorists.”) than others (“[Jack Hawksmoor] has sex with wells.”).

The most brilliant twist in the issue is the choice of who will ultimately be Stormwatch’s new leader: spoiler alert—Projectionist.  There’s poetry in this development for a lot of reasons.  Since #1, she’s bemoaned how no one appreciates her, and how all she wants is recognition, which may explain her rather dramatic past (“…there was the life of crime, the suicide attempts, the murders—”).  Now that she has all the attention she can hope for, it’s entertaining to see her overwhelmed in her new position (“…an emergency?!  Already?!”).  Great choice.

Wonder Woman #4 – Review

By: Brian Azzarello (writer), Cliff Chiang (artist), Matthew Wilson (colorist)

The Story: Someone pop on some AC/DC and turn it up—Wonder Woman’s mourning.

The Review: As a young buff of Greek mythology, I always found the gods and goddesses baffling in their arbitrariness.  Even the most reasoned and benevolent ones would have their petty streaks from time to time, and few of them had any moral compunction about using their power with impunity and without regard for the consequences to mortals.  For that reason, I’ve never felt inclined to feel sympathetic to any of them.  They are gods, after all.

For the most part, Azzarello stays true to the conniving, scheming world of the Greek pantheon.  Ever since Apollo’s oracles revealed Zeus “doesn’t exist,” a truly astonishing pronouncement if you ever heard one, you’d think there’d be some kind of uproar among the divinities, or at least some kind of inquiry as to how this could possibly happen.  But we’re talking about the ultimate mafia family here, so when the head of the household disappears, power plays abound.

To that end, Apollo goes to Ares to secure an alliance of sorts, or at least support for when he makes his bid for leadership.  To your surprise, Ares agrees to stay out of the bidding with little resistance.  In fact, he seems quite lethargic, even melancholy in this portrayal.  While Apollo states that Ares is “vital—now, more than ever,” Ares responds with only a weary smile, as if millennia of spinning the world’s conflict has finally gotten to him.

Hera doesn’t even seem aware, much less affected, by her husband’s disappearance; she only wants to get her revenge on the dalliances he left behind.  Now, her oft-extreme retaliations against those she feels has wronged her may sway you into thinking her mean-spirited or horribly spiteful, but here, she reminds us she has every reason to be: “I am the queen of the gods…the goddess of women…ultimately yet, a woman.”  And any woman would be enraged by such constant infidelity from her husband.

Stormwatch #4 – Review

By: Paul Cornell (writer), Miguel Sepulveda (artist), Alex Sinclair (colorist)

The Story: This alien apparently never learned not to scarf its food.

The Review: In my mind, the big appeal of Stormwatch is their incredible scope.  Between their ages-old mandate and their huge variety of abilities, nothing seems off limits to them, not even the boundaries of time and space (that tends to be the case when one of your members comes into existence at the start of the universe and is destined to end it as well).

So having the team defeat a massive extraterrestrial creature by resurrecting an ancient city beneath the surface of Colorado and using its alchemical powers to transform the creature into glass?  That seems to be a typical day for Stormwatch, but thrilling reading for us.  Initial issues hinted at the kind of power this team possesses, but here, for the first time, they really come together and deliver some fairly epic feats—not too shabby for the first story arc.

This rallying of the team comes at a cost, though.  Adam’s erratic behavior renders him completely impotent at the climax of the crisis, and Engineer finally takes lead in his stead.  But she also reveals her actions aren’t truly motivated by a thirst for power: “…I’m an engineer.  I fix things.  And this was so not working.”  It’s unclear if she’ll take point permanently, but from the looks of things, she seems perfectly suited to do so, even earning street cred with Midnighter.

And getting that dark knight’s approval is no easy feat, since he apparently only gives it to those who reach his high standards (“Good,” he remarks of Engineer’s orders, “That’s how I’d have called it.”).  Despite earlier claims of being a lone wolf, he quickly insinuates into the team as a master tactician, singlehandedly devising a strategy to free the absorbed members of Stormwatch from the creature, with a bit of legwork from Projectionist and Apollo.

Speaking of which, Midnighter and Apollo share a fairly significant moment in this issue when they find that it’s up to the two of them to save the day.  Cornell doesn’t go overboard with it, but when he has Midnighter place his hand on Apollo’s face, asking, “Do you trust me?” and the other man replies, “I—yes,” the exchange has a tenderness that definitely represents more than just a rapport between fighting partners.

Stormwatch #3 – Review

By: Paul Cornell (writer), Miguel Sepulveda (artist), Alex Sinclair & Pete Pantazis (colorists)

The Story: Cloudy, with a chance of meteors that may devastate the planet.  Bundle up!

The Review: Whenever you have a band of super-powered individuals banding together to fight evil, comparisons to the Justice League are inevitable.  Since the League is universally regarded as the primo superhero team in the DCU, and often includes the most recognizable icons, every other team has to not only distinguish its mission statement, but its members as well.  It’s a challenge, all right: how do you beat characters like Superman or Batman?

Stormwatch doesn’t make it easier on itself with such obvious analogues to the World’s Finest in Apollo and Midnighter.  This issue has Apollo flying into space, where direct exposure to the solar radiation that fuels him puts him into overdrive mode.  Good thing, since he does the heavy lifting, destroying a massive asteroid singlehandedly.  Meanwhile, Midnighter has to get over his loner methods to work with a whole gaggle of extraordinarily empowered people, and he feels out of place fighting space creatures when the only thing he can really bring to the table is his tactical mind (“I know how to kill anything.”).  Sound familiar?

That said, we also get plenty of evidence Stormwatch is nothing like the League, especially where power sets are concerned.  Here, you finally get a better understanding of how some of the team’s more bizarre gifts work, like Jack Hawksmoor’s.  As it turns out, when he says he talks to cities, it means he literally sits down among them—elegant Paris, modern It-girl Metropolis, and demonic, rambling Gotham—and has a pleasant chat (“Paris sends her love.”).

Stormwatch #2 – Review

By: Paul Cornell (writer), Miguel Sepulveda & Al Barrionuevo (artists), Alex Sinclair (colorist)

The Story: I’m guessing none of these people played “Follow the Leader” very well as kids.

The Review: Paul Cornell has certainly set aside for himself a quirky territory in the world of comics.  Almost everything he writes has a sincerely strange flavor, but one that can also be strangely sincere.  Whether you’re dealing with Skrulls disguised as the Beatles, a bar where heroes and villains of varying quality rub shoulders and share a hot toddy, or a genius with a fetching robot companion, you can always count on Cornell to deliver the very odd goods.

It doesn’t get much odder than opening on the beginning of all beginnings, the Big Bang, and finding a member of Stormwatch already there.  Adam One appears as befuddled to discover himself in existence as we are, as well as a bit disgruntled at his craving for a “pint,” though “pints” haven’t been invented yet.  An off-panel voice observes, “Ah, so this is the moment you age backwards from the start of the universe!  One day you’re going to try to kill me.”

Cut to a little over a dozen billion years later, and we find Harry looking quite dapper in his middle ages (relatively), but also harried from the multiple demands of his team.  Any group that gathers for a higher calling rather than kinship will have its conflicts, and Stormwatch has plenty, with Engineer brazenly vying for leadership, and Harry Tanner referring to his team in quotes.

Harry becomes increasingly compelling over the course of the issue.  In comparison to the more expansive abilities of his teammates (Jenny Quantum: “Hey, I can do force fields!”  Engineer: “Yes, your dark matter DNA means you can do anything at the moment.”), he doesn’t come off as the most valuable Stormwatcher.  But as Engineer perceptively remarks, “…he’s the greatest at misdirection.  That’s his main power—he’s the prince of lies.”  And so it seems, as he pulls the wool over even the big giant eye of the lunar monster who’s got its tentacles inside his brain.

Stormwatch #1 – Review

By: Paul Cornell (writer), Miguel Sepulveda (artist), Allen Passalaqua (colorist)

The Story: Call me superstitious, but that moon gives me the creeps.

The Review: In one of my reviews for S.H.I.E.L.D., I spoke about the appeal of secret societies, the shadowy group of specially selected individuals who watch over us from afar and chuckle at our ignorance.  It seems DC wants its new universe to have an ancient, secret league of heroes right from the get-go, and so we have Stormwatch, one of many Wildstorm properties the publisher assumed a while back and only just now has found a use for.

Stormwatch certainly has the right makeup to handle the job of being DC’s premier team of unknown worldly guardians.  Here’s a sample: the Engineer, a lady-android with a sarcastic streak; Jack Hawksmoor, controller of cities; Projectionist, mistress media manipulator; and Jenny Quantum, the spirit of the twenty-first century—whatever that means.  That’s before we get to Apollo and Midnighter (Superman and Batman analogues), and good ol’ Martian Manhunter, who rocks a much more aggressive manner than the Zen psychic we’re used to.

But an interesting mix of characters and powers does not a great comic make.  For that, you’ll need a writer who can craft plots capable of actually challenging such a formidable set of beings, and what better man to do so than Cornell?  Anyone who read his run on Action Comics (prior to Reign of the Doomsdays, it goes without saying) knows this man can definitely whip up some serious sci-fi action in epic, mind-bending fashion.

And right from the first page, he puts our team in over their heads.  Somehow, they get spread so thin that Harry Tanner, master swordsman (“I can slice cold fusion from the air, cut my signature on a retina.”), winds up having to fend against the entire living surface of the moon by himself.  If that’s the kind of thing I can expect from this title on a monthly basis, consider me onboard.

Then you discover that whatever massive scourge is about to descend upon the planet, it’s not actually the foe we have to worry about.  This creature itself has fled from an even more knee-shaking entity, and its sole mission now is to prepare other worlds for the inevitable doom to follow.  Don’t hold out hope that it intends to do so with a gentle hand, though.  You don’t write in a giant, intelligent, matter-animating eyeball just to let it hide in the moon.