Category: DC

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Wildcats Version 3.0 Vol. 2: Full Disclosure

Written by Joe Casey
Penciled by Dustin Nguyen
Inked by Richard Friend
144 pages, color
Published by WildStorm/DC Comics

A few years ago, Joe Casey took over the revamped Wildcats series and I was happy with the results. A year later, I was utterly hooked with what Casey was doing with one of the most unorthodox “superhero teams” out there. Now the book is named Wildcats Version 3.0 and I must say how completely impressed I am: it’s not many people who could turn a superhero book into one about a new corporation going up against the business giants of the world and make it so utterly enthralling.

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Kinetic #1

Written by Kelley Puckett
Art by Warren Pleece
32 pages, color
Published by DC Comics

Last month DC Comics released Hard Time #1, the first of their new “DC Focus” line, home to non-connected series about people in the real world gaining super powers. With Kinetic #1 being the second title out of the gate, Kelley Puckett and Warren Pleece are showing that perhaps they should have been the debut series.

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Swamp Thing #1

Written by Andy Diggle
Art by Enrique Breccia
32 pages, color
Published by Vertigo/DC Comics

Poor Swamp Thing. He never seems to get a break, really. After a 24-issue series in the 1970s, most would have thought that he’d slip back into the swamp, never to be seen again. Instead he got a new series in the early ’80s that lasted for an astounding 171 issues, followed by yet another series a couple of years ago starring his daughter that lasted for 20 issues until cancellation. Now a fourth series has begun, and the question remains: is it time for the character to be retired back into the bog, or is there eternal youth lurking in that swamp water?

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Hard Time #1

Written by Steve Gerber
Art by Brian Hurtt
48 pages, color
Published by DC Comics

The conceit of DC’s new “DC Focus” line is simple enough. Stand-alone books where there are no superheroes, no villains, just average people who find themselves in extraordinary circumstances. Hard Time is the first of the four titles out of the gate, but as I read it I found myself wondering: is Hard Time really the title they should use to kick off this line of books?

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Outsiders #7

Written by Judd Winick
Penciled by Tom Raney
Inked by Scott Hanna
32 pages, color
Published by DC Comics

Sometimes all it takes is a snazzy cover. It’s what got me to buy the most recent issue of Outsiders, after all. I’d heard a lot about the new hit series from DC Comics, and it was certainly on my radar as something I should take a look at. But while I was browsing the racks, there was something about Tom Raney and Scott Hanna’s illustration on the front of Outsiders #7 that begged me to take a closer look. Maybe it was the character on the front page melting, maybe it was is catatonic pose, but whatever it was… it worked.

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My Faith in Frankie #1

Written by Mike Carey
Penciled by Sonny Liew
Inked by Sonny Liew and Marc Hempel
32 pages, color
Published by Vertigo/DC Comics

It’s been a while since I’ve been so surprised by a comic. Usually when a new book comes out, I’ve read a bunch about it, know what to expect, seen an advance page or two… stuff like that. But somehow My Faith in Frankie fell completely off my radar. I knew it was being created, I knew that Mike Carey (whose comics I really enjoy) was writing it, and that Sonny Liew (whose Malinky Robot I reviewed about a month ago) was the penciler. But somehow, it just didn’t stick in my mind. Now that I’ve read #1, though, I won’t be forgetting it any time soon.

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Vertical

Written by Steven T. Seagle
Penciled by Mike Allred
Inked by Philip Bond
64 pages, color
Published by Vertigo/DC Comics

At a casual glance, it’s a gimmick comic. Take the normal dimensions of a comic and slice them in half so it’s only half as wide as normal. Then, let the comic open up from top to bottom so it’s twice as tall. What’s surprising, then, is that once you get past the casual glance that Vertical works quite well in these strange dimensions. In fact, I can’t imagine it any other way.

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Superman: Secret Identity #1

Written by Kurt Busiek
Art by Stuart Immonen
48 pages, color
Published by DC Comics

If you had to pick an iconic superhero that more people knew about than any other, Superman would probably be the winner. That’s probably why Kurt Busiek and Stuart Immonen chose him for their Superman: Secret Identity mini-series. In many ways, it seems like it’s a book that doesn’t depend so much on the character… but on the rest of the world knowing who that character is.

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Sandman: Endless Nights

Written by Neil Gaiman
Art by Glenn Fabry, Milo Manara, Miguelanxo Prado, Frank Quitely, P. Craig Russell, Bill Sienkiewicz, and Barron Storey
160 pages, color
Published by Vertigo/DC Comics

Fans of Sandman had to be happy when they first heard the news. The best-selling series, having ended in 1996 with its 75-issue run, was returning in the form of a brand-new graphic novel written by Neil Gaiman. Sandman: Endless Nights certainly set sales records thanks to high demand in both comic shops and bookstores—but once all the flurry dies down, how is the book itself?

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Rose & Thorn #1

Written by Gail Simone
Penciled by Adriana Melo
Inked by Dan Green
32 pages, color
Published by DC Comics

I first came across Rose and Thorn in the pages of the Superman titles over a decade ago. There was something instantly intriguing about this woman, who by day was Rose, only to have an alter ego take over at night and fight organized crime. It wasn’t the idea of two identities that grabbed me, but rather the fact that Rose and Thorn were two distinct personalities housed in the same person, each operating with their own ideas and motives. Now Gail Simone’s taken this character out of mothballs to try and redefine her for the 21st century—and it’s great to see that she clearly saw the same appeal in her.

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