Mixed Plate Comics- Week of 9.7.11

Week 2 of the New 52 and no shortage of DC books released this time around!  Really intended on picking up only 4 of the 13 #1's this week, but was hard to pass up on 3 others after talking with some of my Wednesday homies from Comics Conspiracy.  This is where I spent my time page flipping :  Casanova: Avaritia #1 / Star Wars: Dark Times- Out of the Wilderness #2 / Justice League International #1 / Stormwatch #1 /  Animal Man #1 / Batgirl #1 / Detective Comics #1 / Action Comics #1 / Wolverine: Debt of Death #1 .  Dope reads a plenty from the stack but the shocker was those damn 3 New 52 books that I wasn't grab made the top list!!

5     Detective Comics #1  Tony Daniel & Ryan Winn

I gotta love/hate relationship with Tony Daniel.  No different from issues I have with James Robinson.  They bust some of the craziest, ill joints and then smoke us with bammer weed.  I was close to not picking up Detective but the completion-ist voice told me to get it!

I did.  And damn I am loving Tony Daniel again.

The art that Daniel and Winn supply is on some deranged-Arkham level status on how cray-cray the Dark Knight and Gotham are presented.  This is what I was expecting from David Finch.  Well, you got it here.

Daniel pulls from some of the best Bat stories ever told-- be it Batman Year One or The Dark Knight Returns-- with subtlety paying tributes to em in his panel setup on the rooftop with a young Gordon or how he plays with shadows to prep for mad action shots.

Gotta admit that I doubt they can hit any higher notes next month than they pulled off here, I mean who can top the Joker as the ultimate villain to Bats?!  Daniel rocks the freshest batman illos since his Battle for the Cowl run.  Gail Simones' Batgirl debut was just edged out by Detective primarily due to it being such a fun, fist-pumping, high quality read.  



4   Stormwatch  #1  Paul Cornell & Miguel Sepulveda

So the New 52 makes way to easy access points for books that I never touched.  Stormwatch is one of em.

Cornell, along with Scott Snyder have drawn me into practically anything they lay down-- add in Sepulveda on art (who blew my mind in the Supes/Bats annual he killed with Robinson) and you make this title a must read ish.

Only character that I had any real semblance of familiarity to was Apollo and of course the Martian Manhunter.  If anything, this compelled me more to see what was going on in Stormwatch as uncharted territory is fun especially in how this superpowered / secret society has all of the workings of being the DC equivalent to SHIELD (Hickman's version).  Real gritty and how about that nasty ode to anime(the giant eyeball and that tentacle move)?!

Whoa that is one sick ass render of J'onn J'onnz via the hands of Sepulveda.  Was always curious to see how this Midnighter cat would stack against some of the DC heavy hitters.  Guess that answered that.



3   Swamp Thing  #1  Scott Snyder & Yanick Paquette
Everyone in comics knows that Alan Moore's Swamp Thing is the stuff of legend.  I mean I know that, but have a read it yet?  No.  It is on my must read list but for now, I will be a new school Swamp Thing reader most in part to everyone's fave new wordsmith- Scott Snyder.

This book is real effing scary.  How do the hell would you react to some person you know twisting their own head around and start chasing your pee-stained pants wearing ass?!

Same as the peeps in this horrific Paquette panel huh?  Real intrigued in seeing how an obscure character like Swamp Thing can interact with the brighty-tighty icons like Superman and Batman-- which both make cameos in this ish.

The New 52 represents a new DCU that incorporates the best of Wildstorm and Vertigo as if they were always a part of the same worlds.  This is another title you gotta add to your pull-list.  Superhero-horror at its creepiest.


2  Action Comics #1   Grant Morrison & Rags Morales

What Morrison seems to have planned with reinvigorating Kal-El is de-powering him some -- in a Smallville-ish kinda way, no flight (yet) and grounding him more in humanity fighting for the people.  I am a Rags fan, but the work sadly seemed a bit rushed in places.

Some of the scenes showing regular people looking out to defend Superman from huge tanks and military did feel a bit corny...but everything else about how Morrison is tackling Superman--- as if this is our first time meeting him is solid.

I really wanted this to be my number one read of the week, but that only shows how good Animal Man is.


1  Animal Man #1    Jeff Lemire & Travel Foreman

This is the one book that doesn't belong.  A superhero with powers similar to Vixen-- channeling characteristics/powers of animals-- that is also a family man / hipster?  Okay not so much on the last part but all of the above are reasons for me not to give this title a chance.

I did.  And watch as I go back and hunt down Morrison's Animal-Man run so that one issue in, my bins will look as if Buddy Baker always had a home in em.  Thanks Jeff Lemire for busting that same scribe magic on Sweet Tooth, Atom and Superboy.

Foreman to me was always a much better cover artist then interiors from my time reading Iron Fist-- but holy crappers-- his style is perfect for the mood set by Lemire.  Major props to Lovern Kindzierski who rocks the colors with serious abandon.

Easily the best book of The New 52 so far. 


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big O