First Wave Special – Review

By: Jason Starr (writer), Phil Winslade (artist), Lovern Kindzierski (colorist)

The Story: I think we can all safely conclude the Avenger’s got some major issues.

The Review: With the end of the First Wave miniseries, DC now has the awkward situation of having set up a fully-realized, separate world from their primary continuity, but with only two titles to support it (the underwhelming Doc Savage and the more pleasing The Spirit).  It’s not clear where they’ll take this strictly pulp/noir universe from here.

First Wave Special doesn’t really give a good indication of DC’s plans for this world.  The story doesn’t follow up the series in any way, nor does it tie into any of the related ongoings (except for featuring El Mano Negra and Shonder Zeev, New York mobsters briefly mentioned in The Spirit).  Mostly the issue acts as a character piece for the Avenger, AKA Richard Benson, who played a fairly big role in the First Wave miniseries, but whom you got to know the least.

And overall, he gets a fairly strong showing here.  His gunning for Zeev gives him ample opportunity to demonstrate his utter ruthlessness, which is pretty intense.  I’m not sure even Batman would beat the teeth out of a mobster with a brick, especially after saying he won’t.  Starr does a good job balancing the Avenger’s narration with exposition and his internal broodings, though it gets heavy-handed every now and then.

Besides the angst, the Avenger’s sense of justice is incredibly contradictory.  Savage is correct in his assessment that Benson has a code only he understands; the Avenger spends the issue going after Zeev and his thugs for crippling a client, but when it comes to the atrocities El Mano Negro commits against the innocents of the city, Benson doesn’t “give a damn about any of this.”  But considering his grim origins, it makes sense personal vendettas are the only ones he’s interested in taking up.