It took a while, but I'm back in the comics-reading fold again with a mix of great and not-so-great comic books this week! What did I think about this week's releases? Read on to find out!
Justice League #1 opens up with a global catastrophic event...just like it did during their recent Rebirth one-shot. DC's big seven are reduced to boring one liners while they save people and posture menacingly at an unseen and mysterious menace, a mystery they're not giving me enough reason to care about. I've never read Bryan Hitch's writing before, but I admit it's a passable adventure, if not downright cliché. Even Tony Daniel's art, while gorgeous and wonderfully rendered, cannot save a story we've heard as recently as a couple of weeks ago. A shame, as I had high hopes for a book about DC's flagship superteam. This gets a 2 out of 5.
Oh my, Black Hammer #1 is downright atmospheric. Forced to live mundane lives after a mysterious event forced them out of their home city seemingly for good, Jeff Lemire's stranded pulp heroes (with names like Abraham Slam and Col. Weird) are anything but heroic. It makes for good drama, and Lemire knows how to write characters with huge chips on their shoulders and deeper motivations than they're letting on. Who wouldn't be pissed if you had to live like a normal person after a lifetime of superheroics? There's an unsettling undercurrent throughout the issue, which is making me itch for them to stop being mundane so that I can know what happens next, and in that aspect Black Hammer #1 worked. This gets a 4 out of 5.
I find that the beauty of Betty and Veronica #1 is in the way it's written like an actual old-school Archie comic, complete with zingy one-liners and slapstick humor. But instead of talking like the archaic stereotype of old Archie strips, writer and artist Adam Hughes writes Betty, Veronica, and the gang like the teens of today, a bit more world-weary and hip. Relateable and all that.
I admit, my main draw here is Adam Hughes' art, and I'm glad to say it blows my mind how gorgeous this book (and the ladies drawn therein) is. Care to see what Betty Cooper looks like if she was a 40's pinup? Hughes and Archie is a match made in soda pop heaven. His writing though is something to get used to, as you have to go through literally pages of banter, segues, and non sequiturs before reaching anything resembling a plot. Stay for the art, if nothing else. This gets a 4 out of 5.
Finally, Jim Zub serves up some more Street Fighter goodness in Street Fighter Legends: Cammy #1. Having had the pleasure of reading his previous work, I got a copy reserved preview unseen, and I was not disappointed! In this issue, we find Cammy leading a British special ops group called Delta Blue, consisting of former Shadaloo soldiers (Cammy included) turned good guys. But M. Bison's evil isn't easily scrubbed clean, and Cammy finds herself coming face-to-face with the demons of her past!
Jim Zub writes a kick-ass book, with equal doses of high-octane action and cute moments (Cammy in a cute dress? I'll take 20!). It helps that Omar Dogan's manga-style art is my cup of tea, making for one of the best-looking books on the stands this week. Bottom line, Legends: Cammy #1 is simply no-frills, action-packed fun straight out of the arcade screen. I give this a 5 out of 5.
Great new comics this week! What did you get? And do you agree that Adam Hughes should just draw Archie Comics forever? Let me know in the comments section below! Thanks for reading!
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