The Week of October 17 in Review – Part 2 of 4 The DCU

The current DC has disenfranchised me and some other readers. There are some good books to be found and last week the best book of the week, but in general I’m less engaged with the characters then before. I still try to pick up series here and there or even retry a book or two, but it is very easy to leave many of the books behind.

This week one of my favorite DCU books hit the stands Wonder Woman #13 by Brian Azzarello and the other main artist Tony Akins. While Tony is a good artist I still prefer Cliff Chiang. Also the zero stuff from last month did cause a gap in the monthly flow of the books and it is taking me a few pages to get back into the series. Sadly the whole New Gods are back stuff was not mentioned at all. Apollo is now King of the Gods and Diana and Lennox are left to try and figure it all out. Azzarello has crafted a Wonder Woman steeped in Greek Mythology and is building a lot of his own version of it. In some ways it is reminiscent of what Lee and Kirby did with Thor as he left behind his mortal guise and was more and more involved in Asgard. Wonder Woman in her book is a totally different character from who she is in the Justice League. It is a bit hard for me to remember all the players as the cast has become huge and this issue is all about setting up a War between the various fractions. While it is an involved series, it is well worth the time.

Next up is Sword of Sorcery #1 with Amethyst by Christy Marx and Aaron Lopresti and a backup feature Beowulf by Tony Bedard and Jesus Saiz. Due to a book club I recently read Beowulf and the book about Grendel done years later. It is enjoyable to see the Beowulf story set in a post apocalyptic world with Bedard doing deft writing and Saiz making it look great. I also find Amethyst to be enjoyable much to my chagrin and surprise. I’m not the target audience but so far it is a well done story and it is slowly building a world as it uses the Princess as a great point of view character.

Birds of Prey #13 by Duane Swierczynski and Romano Molenaar continues to grow on me. Especially with the reveal that Starling works for Amanda Waller. I also like that the cast seems to be set on Black Canary, Starling, Katana and Batgirl. Better yet Duane is focusing on the three that don’t have their own books. Now that the back story is being revealed I find that I want to know more about this Black Canary and Starling. Of course that means Katana is the focus of this issue. It has settled down into being a strong action adventure series with plenty of intrigue.

Batwoman #13 by JH Williams as co-writer/artist and co-writer W. Haden Blackmon is a never ending story. We are 13 issues into the series and have yet to solve the mystery of the children. The book is badly overwritten and it is a mistake I see a few artist/writers make at times. They tend to forget the art tells the story and the words should add to the flow and not stop it. Of course Williams artwork is great and some of the double page spreads are not always the best designed in being able to follow how we are suppose to read it, but it is drop dead gorgeous work. Hell the book is worth it just to look at Willams art. Of course he will have to stop drawing this soon as he is set to illustrate the Neil Gaiman mini-series.

I tried to like Legion of Super Heroes #13 by Paul Levitz and Scott Kolins. Levitz is doing very good work with World’s Finest and Kolins art has looked good at times. Kolins work here looks like he is again adjusting his style and the characters are still not working. I dropped the book before and I’m on the fence about it now. I may or may not be back for #14.

Justice League #13 is another try it again book and this book just barely sucks less than it did before. This series has the false Wonder Woman, in that she and her regular series counterpart cannot be the same person. It is also trying to lay the ground work for the spin off series coming out soon. Like some Marvel core books, I will hang on a little longer again. I should like Justice League, but it really does not feel like a team.

Last and most disappointing was Nightwing #13 by Tom Defalco and Andres Guinaldo. The whole Lady Shiva thing was all set up and no actual confrontation. There was the weird brush with Batgirl where she seems pissed off at Dick and I have no clue why and there was Tom DeFalco as the writer. Tom did an okay job, but as much as I hate that Dick is apparently barely 22 or whatever, Higgins Nightwing was starting to grow on me. I believe DeFalco is a guest writer, but I’m not sure why we needed this story at this time.

Part 3 Tomorrow.