Justice League #23.1: Darkseid – Review

By: Greg Pak (story), Paulo Siqueira & Netho Diaz (art), Hi-Fi (colors)

The Story: This is the rags-to-riches story of a little fella named Darkseid.

The Review: It’s been a while since the Fourth World had anything like an ongoing series, but they remain one of DC’s most important properties.  Its cosmic mythology weaves in well with the science fiction of superheroes, yet also has an epic, high-fantasy quality that makes the DCU seem that much more profound.  The mystery of the New Gods’ goals and their very nature is what keeps them above the comparatively petty going-ons of the rest of the universe.

So it’s kind of a double-edged sword when writers start delving too deeply into the Fourth World mythos.  It might satisfy our hunger to know more about them, but it also risks reducing them to just another plot device for the DCU.  Indeed, characters like Madame Xanadu, the Phantom Stranger, and the Guardians of the Universe all devolved into less impressive figures as a result of revealing too much about them.  For that reason, it was probably a mistake to force Pak to explore the origins of Darkseid, which is obviously tied to the origins of the Fourth World itself.

Wonder Woman #22 – Review

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

The Story: Figures that Diana would sleep through her time in Paradise.

The Review: I’m not versed enough in comics and their history to make broad statements about certain works and creators, but I don’t think I’m out of line in saying that Jack Kirby’s Fourth World was and remains one of the most important concepts in DC lore.  Wildly unappreciated in its time, it is now one of the bedrocks of the DCU, inspiring comic book writers to aspire beyond the superhero to the neo-mythic.

Azzarello is the lucky man who gets to decide what the New Gods mean and stand for in the current DCU.  Yet despite putting Orion in an ongoing role on this title, Azzarello has otherwise kept mostly mum about the Fourth World’s purpose.  To be frank, even though this issue takes place almost entirely on New Genesis, we only learn about the blessed realm and its denizens in the most general, if wonderfully hyperbolic terms:

“[A] world caught up in the joyful strains of life!  There are no structures on its green surface—except those which serve the cause of wellbeing…  Destiny’s road is charted in the city, massive, yet graceful—gleaming on its platform—a skyborne satellite drawn in endless silence by its hidden mechanisms!  The true place of peace.“

Wonder Woman #21 – Review

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

The Story: What say we cut the talk short and Boom Tube our way out of here?

The Review: I’ve made my remarks about the difficulty of writing Superman before, so I need not repeat them now.  I will say, however, that hard as it is to get a handle on a man who seems to embody superhuman virtue, it’s even harder to get inside a character who represents womanly perfection.  For a while, Azzarello has built up such an interesting story around his heroine that you could ignore her defects as a sympathetic, accessible protagonist—until now.

Now, Azzarello has fallen into a kind of trap, the same one that captures most Wonder Woman writers sooner or later: she has become a cypher in her own story.  Her character development seems to have stopped somewhere after her line to Hades about loving “[e]veryone,” and since then, our attention has largely been fixed on the characters and events around her.  You can see here that she rarely asserts her presence except when called to spar or defend her own dignity (“…I thought I told you to respect me, Orion…”).  You simply can’t generate an engaging personality from that.

Wonder Woman #15 – Review

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

The Story: The best part about being buddies with a New God?  The joyrides.

The Review: Ever since Orion made his silhouetted, booming appearance in #12, we’ve all been waiting with to see whether that cameo was any more than a tease.  The final scene of #14 showed that the New Gods’ presence in this arc goes beyond just the Dog of War and may mean a permanent place for them in the new DCU—if, you know, time and space itself doesn’t completely unravel first.

Now it appears that not only are the New Gods firmly established in the DCU, but that they have always been a part of it.  Orion apparently makes trips to Earth with some regularity, given the familiarity he has with Milan, another of Zeus’ passel of wedlock children.  Although Orion’s kindly treatment of Milan shows you a cool, unexpected side to his character, it does make you wonder how this friendship started, and why Orion is so invested in these Earthbound demigods.

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?

Earth Two #1 – Review

By: James Robinson (story), Nicola Scott (pencils), Trevor Scott (inks), Alex Sinclair (colors)

The Story: With some stories, it’s better to start at the end.

The Review: I can hardly believe this, but pretty close to a year ago, I talked about how much I liked parallel-universe ridiculousness in all its forms.  I’m such a sucker for that kind of stuff that if you told me there’d be an episode of Glee where for some musical-related reason, everything went the opposite of how it should be (read: watchable), I’d probably show up.  So obviously, I really like DC’s Multiverse concept, and was excited to see its return, starting with Earth Two.

And for most people, you can’t hear “Earth Two” without associating it with the Justice Society.  I imagine the purists will be frothing at the mouth once I mention the Society doesn’t appear for even a moment in this issue—at least, not as such.  But have faith and remember who’s writing this thing: Robinson, the man who brought the Society back to prominence for the new millennium, so his track record is pretty good here.

Action Comics Annual #13 – Review

by Paul Cornell (writer), Marco Rudy & Ed Benes (art), Val Staples & Jason Wright (colors), and John J. Hill (letters)

The Story: A young Lex Luthor finds himself the unwilling “employee” of Darkseid and, in the back-up, the disciple of Ra’s Al-Ghul.

What’s Good: First things first: this issue is $4.99, but it’s a big, quality package that ultimately earns that price tag.  That being said, this isn’t just a double-sized issue of Paul Cornell’s Action Comics.  It has Lex Luthor, sure, but this is something different, something that allows for Cornell to show his range as a writer.

Cornell does a fantastic and very subtly nuanced job of writing the young Lex Luthor.  It is most definitely Lex, but it’s a Lex that’s more brash, fearless, and arrogant.  He’s like the first LP of your favourite band: more raw with both his flaws and strengths more readily apparent.  Sure he’s brave to the point of lunacy, but he also has a near pathological hatred of being dismissed – his inferiority complex is never clearer.  All told, young Lex makes for a compelling protagonist.

The main feature is all kinds of kooky, having a tone not unlike the old, sci-fi/cosmic adventures of the past.  It’s a kind of pure, wacky sci-fi that makes for a distinctly different read.  Helping this along is Cornell’s Darkseid, which is all kinds of awesome.  Cornell clearly has the time of his life writing the character, who is a classically bombastic “muhuhahaha” villain.  This makes for a fantastic adversary for Lex, one who clearly functions at a different level.

The generally fun artwork of Marco Rudy is a perfect fit for this story, playing up the goofy retro tone while drawing one hell of an Apokolips.  His work is a sort of noir acid trip and it ends up being quite a bit of fun.

Final Crisis #1 (of 7) – Review

By Grant Morrison, J.G. Jones, and Alex Sinclair

As someone who’s not well versed in the DC Universe, I gotta say, this issue will do nothing but confuse and detract new readers to the DC line. The problem is so much of this story is entrenched in DC lore that it’s impossible for new (or maybe even casual) readers to grasp what’s going on. Grant Morrison does his best to provide a semblance of expository dialogue, but issue servers as a rare case where there isn’t enough exposition. And because of this, new readers will suffer. If DC wants to attract new readers, they need to make their summer blockbuster event *much* more accessible.

My familiarity of the “Crisis” events is vague; I know what happened with “Inifinite Earths” and 52, and I read Identity Crisis. And yet, due to my lack of experience, the only thing I can really draw from this story is the (once again) banding of super villains to deliver a killing blow to the super heroes. I did recognize Doctor Light – and he’s still creepy.

There’s definitely a lot going on here and I was able to understand the overall gist of the story and the subplots, but many characters were unrecognizable to me. This lack of familiarity has forced me to just “go along for the ride”. Other than the death of a major character – which I felt was almost forced just to make a statement that “no one is safe” – I can’t honestly formulate an opinion on whether what’s going on is stunning or not

One thing that had me interested, the return of Barry Allen in DC Universe #0, isn’t even touched upon in this issue. Instead, the story races around, establishing the players and what’s at stake (which seems like a lot given the cosmic level of what’s shown). Despite the convolution, Morrison’s dialogue rolls of the tongue of the book’s characters and J.G. Jones’ art is wonderfully detailed and easy to follow.

I’m going to stick around and see if I can make sense of everything. Hell, maybe I’ll learn some stuff about the DC Universe. But judging from the tone of this first issue, I’m going to have to do a lot of homework to make sense of it all. Readers who’ve followed DC’s line of books for years will most likely enjoy this first issue, but for the rest of us, it’s unfriendly nature to neophytes may evoke a hostile response. (Grade: C)

– J. Montes