Aaron Eckhart plays Frankenstein’s monster (now existing under the name Adam Frankenstein) as he is dragged into a war between… gargoyles? and angels? Possibly? It’s really hard to tell. But Bill Nighy is in it and so is Miranda “I am no man” Otto.

It’s written by the same guy who did Underworld so it’s that level of madness. Funnily enough it’s actually based on a graphic novel by Darkstorm Studios (no, I’ve never heard of them either) so you can expect a commentary from myself and JJ when it arrives on DVD.

– Dear Diary

I absolutely love the idea that Doctor Frankenstein kept a journal with a big dirty logo on the front with his initial. It’s fantastic.

I kinda want one. Although all I would write in mine is neck-bolt jokes.

– Really Really Ridiculously Good Looking

There is no getting away from the fact that Aaron Eckhart is an attractive man. They try to mess up his face but c’mon…

That chin dimple and those beautiful eyes just can’t be uglified.

– They’ve Both Stoned and High

So these are the bad guys. I guess? Frankenstein sure does kill a lot of them in this trailer.

Gargoyle creatures in the air and Roman looking pretty people on the ground. They seem to want to use Frankenstein as a weapon or something. Maybe? Possibly.

– Death From Above

Oh no, wait, maybe these are the bad guys.

The army of Frankenstein monsters that Adam Frankenstein says will destroy the world. Maybe. Possibly.

—————————————————————————–

You know what? I have no idea what is going on here and I don’t care, this looks ridiculous. It might be worth watching with some mates and a lot of beers but otherwise, just like with the monster, you may get the urge to burn the makers of I, Frankenstein!

Undead soldiers, were-bat assassins, sentient monster planets, bratty children, the monsters in today’s books will surely quake the heart and rend the soul.

Frankenstein Agent of S.H.A.D.E. Vol. 1: War of the Monsters

Here’s an odd yet brilliant mash-up of characters and ideas, so, of course, it should come as no surprise that most of it originates from the mind of Grant Morrison. Specifically, this version of Frankenstein and the Super Human Advanced Defense Executive (S.H.A.D.E., a…shady government organization — see what they did there?) germinated from Morrison’s Seven Soldiers of Victory, a miniseries itself composed of several smaller miniseries meant to reinvigorate several  of the DC universe’s minor characters, with Frankenstein as one of the titular seven soldiers. A version of Frankenstein’s monster has existed in the DC universe since the ‘40s (oddly enough, debuting as a Batman nemesis) but this incarnation takes inspiration from Doc Frankenstein and Hellboy, homages to classic pulp heroes like Doc Savage with a gothic twist. Jeff Lemire’s Frankenstein continues in that vein, battling forces from beyond the veil with Pulp action aplomb while maintaining a healthy sense of poetic self-loathing that comes natural to an electrically animated monstrosity forged of multitude corpses.

But whereas Morrison’s S.H.A.D.E. was an out-and-out nefarious organization (a product of the Patriot Act no less) that had to blackmail Frankie into service and got up to even stupider villainy in the Infinite Crisis tie-in Battle For Bludhaven, Jeff Lemire reinvents S.H.A.D.E. into a B.P.R.D.-esque covert supernatural investigations group. Following suit, S.H.A.D.E.’s director, Father Time, has forsaken his villainous roots as well, embodied, strangely enough, in his transmogrification into an elementary school-aged Japanese schoolgirl…wearing a domino mask…because domino masks are cool.

Along for the ride, we also have former Atom, Dr. Ray Palmer, complete with shrinking belt though sans costume (Ryan Choi remains the current Atom, it seems), supplying S.H.A.D.E. with advanced technology while acting as liaison between S.H.A.D.E. and the United Nations.

The book opens with a scene all too familiar to horror movie fans: the opening kill. Yes, sadly this grandfather and grandson enjoying their day fishing on the lake lack the extrasensory perception to know they’re the opening shot of a creature feature. Sure enough, wretched lake monsters devour the pair but not before the grandfather lets on that he knows more about these nightmares than your average grandpa. Enter Frankenstein.

Foregoing a scheduled vacation, Frankie pays a visit to S.H.A.D.E. at Father Time’s request where Father recruits Frank into action against this sudden monster outbreak. Frankenstein refuses at first but upon learning his estranged wife, the Bride of Frankenstein, S.H.A.D.E.’s premier super-agent (and, yes, she’s given no other name beyond “Bride” despite making it abundantly clear the two are well divorced), is M.I.A. and most probably in danger, Frank can’t help but accept. Enter the Creature Commandos, S.H.A.D.E.’s team of enhanced super-agents, each made to resemble a classic Universal Movie Monster: Nina the Mermaid, a Creature from the Black Lagoon homage; Velcoro the Vampire, more accurately a Langstrom serum-induced man-bat; Griffith the Werewolf; and Khalis the Mummy. With Frankenstein at the lead, they enter the now quarantined town and give battle. But yet more unspeakable horror await them within the lake itself.

Alberto Ponticelli’s sketchy, exaggerated penciling suits these adventures well, conveying frenetic skirmishes with aplomb and ludicrous landscapes and technologies with equal virtue. The Ant Farm, S.H.A.D.E. HQ, looks suitably enormous yet claustrophobic as pylons stretch endlessly upward yet Brazil-style ducts, wires, and machinery clutter the ground — indeed, the specter of technology looms over the characters, an entity unto itself. However, juxtaposed to J.G. Jones’ magnificent cover art, personally, I’m left fantasizing what could have been had he penciled the entire book. But that’s unfair to Ponticelli who really does an outstanding job here and more my personal preference when it comes to comic book artwork.

As much as I enjoy Frankenstein Agent of S.H.A.D.E.’s classic Pulpiness, a few moments try just a little too hard to be Pulp. “What shall we call our egg-shaped interdimensional shuttle?” “How about ‘The Egg’?” “Perfect!” “What shall we call this box-shaped device that holds a ridiculous number of weapons?” “How about ‘The Toybox’?” “Brilliant!” Anything and everything has its appropriately twee codename — the Ant Farm, the Zoo, I’m sure even the lavatories have appropriately pointless nicknames. Consequently, the book has about as much character development one would expect from a Pulp adventure.

Frankenstein, ever at odds with his Bride (sorry, ex-Bride), shows some rounding around the edges as we learn some of his backstory and see his interactions with old friends like Father Time and the Bride, but the book becomes so wrapped up with ludicrous plots that not enough character shines through after six issues. Frankenstein’s Bride provides the requisite mouthy badass but Frankie’s Creature Commandos suffer the most: Nina the Mermaid gets her own Dr. Frankenstein-style guilt trip following the creation of her first batch of botched Creature Commandos, but Velcoro, Griffith, and Khalis remain one-dimensional even after six issues. Velcoro and Griffith exchange verbal silos but their quips lack originality. (Their one-liners must have come from the three-for-one bin.)

Regardless, Frankenstein remains good old fashioned comic book fun. Universal movie monsters battling Lovecraftian horrors across mind-blowing landscapes — there’s an inherent intrigue to the premise and Jeff Lemire doesn’t waste it, carving out a good horror action niche for himself. In Animal Man he’s created something truly terrifying but here he’s created something undeniably fun.

OMNIBUZZ

A look at the latest collections and omnibus releases

Batman: The Black Glove Deluxe Edition

Yet more goodness from the weird and wild brain of Grant Morrison who never fails to bring something strange and new to every title he works on, Batman included.

But before we get into the meat of things, it needs noting that this volume’s title is something of a misnomer as it contains more than just Batman’s confrontations with the Black Glove. Indeed, the working title seemed to be “Batman and Son vs. the Black Glove”, a more encompassing title as the first third has little to do with the Black Glove storyline save some foreshadowing. I say “something of a misnomer” because Morrison’s run here can be characterized as part of the overall Black Glove cycle (although that would also include Batman R.I.P. and Batman & Robin if we were to nitpick). Regardless, this collection contains three distinct storylines previously collected in the Batman and Son and Batman: The Black Glove trades and contains everything the entirety of Morrison’s run on Batman leading up to Batman R.I.P.

Unlike a lot of modern comic book writers, Grant Morrison embraces the lavishly ludicrous elements of superheroes, taking all aspects of a hero’s storied career as canon and shedding new light on forgotten chapters of a character’s history. Here, Batman’s particularly zany adventures from the Silver Age manifest as the garbled hallucinations induced by too much Joker gas and fear toxin. Alternate versions of Batman manifest as the Three Ghosts of Batman, the Batmen of Many Nations, and even Bat-Mite has a cameo.

Impressively, Morrison introduces these elements without losing the heart of Batman’s character and without allowing the ludicrous to override basic emotional investment. For example, there’s a nice through line from story to story about Alfred encouraging and helping Bruce to maintain his playboy image, not so much to hide the fact that Wayne is Batman, but to remind Bruce to lighten up every now and again for his sanity’s sake. He’s one of the few writers now that remember Batman’s human side while too many others, taking all the wrong influences from Frank Miller, turn him into a paranoid asshole.

Andy Kubert, J.H. Williams III, and Tony S. Daniel provide pencils for each story arc. All provide excellent artwork though Williams stands above the others, providing his ever amazing design work for the Club of Heroes segment. Kubert and Daniel provide your typical post-’90s artwork: highly detailed and sketchy with lots of hatching. Not a bad style, especially in the more action oriented sequences, but, against Williams, falls somewhere short. The more painterly touches in Williams’ art complement the noirish mysteries behind Morrison’s plotting while Kubert and Daniel’s art feels more at home in your typical action comic, though both successfully deliver when it comes to grandiose reveals and high-flying stunts.

This is an excellent jumping-on point for recent events in the Batman mythos as well as an essential lead-in to Morrison’s Batman & Robin and Batman Incorporated, along with Batman R.I.P. Plot arcs from The Black Glove carry over into those books, so jumping in without this volume for backstory means jumping into a story half finished with no context.

The final 18, probably containing the best and the worst of the lot.

Looking back, I really should have chosen books that I was going to buy a bit more sparingly. Ending up with 19 out of 52 seems like far too much. Most of my friends are keeping it under 10 books. I like to pretend that I’m Mr. Moneybags (read: outdated reference to a rich guy) but I work a part-time job and have bills and really probably can’t afford all of these books. That is the sacrifice I make for you, faithful reader. I do this all for you…and me. Well, mostly for me. Well…yeah, all me.

35. Grifter #1
Written by NATHAN EDMONDSON
Art by CAFU

I really liked Who is Jake Ellis? when I could get a hold of it, but its the only exposure that I’ve had to Edmondson. Cafu, I’ve had even less exposure to, only remembering him from his cover work on Superman and Action comics, which, admittedly, I liked quite a lot, but I’ve not seen his interior work outside of what a quick google search shows me. I’m a bit hesitant about picking up a series with such big unknowns.

That being said, I’m a bit of a sucker for Grifter. When I was about 10 or so, I inherited some of my brother’s collection of comics. It wasn’t the largest collection on Earth and it was a bit piecemeal due to rare visits to the comic book store with our uncle, but I loved WildC.A.T.S. with a foolish passion. My comic book knowledge at that point was sparse enough that I didn’t see where the team was pulling from existing comic ideas, I just thought that they were cool dudes and looked awesome. Its the same childish passion that made me tolerate and even enjoy the Green Lantern movie on at first that makes me want to read this book so very much. Grifter was particularly interesting because he didn’t really have powers, his costume was fairly simple, and he was a loner. I quite liked pretending to be him in my younger years. I will pick up this book because it has a hell of a lot of potential, an almost guarantee of being an enjoyable read, and not a lot of risk of being bad.

Verdict: DOOM!

36. Legion of Superheroes #1
Written by PAUL LEVITZ
Art by FRANCIS PORTELA

Paul Levitz is a name that’s nearly synonymous with the Legion of Superheroes with about 100 under his belt. He has written consistently solid comic books in a company that often goes awry. Portela has worked with Levitz before on Legion, so I think we have a good team here, but I’m not really a fan of Portela’s art, which doesn’t win this title any points.

To me, Legion has always been a book that’s easy to drop. Its always fun and it is always written pretty well, but its just not a story that I could ever get invested in. Even less so now with the reboot making everybody’s back-story so unclear and having so little confirmation that this will be the team that is familiar or a splinter group as it seems it will be. Covert-Ops is obviously a theme in this reboot. There are at least 7 comics out of the 52 that are advertised as such, or some other vague sort of secret agent team doing a job that nobody else can do. Lots of secret, very specific villainy going on post-Flashpoint. I might pick this up if it gets good enough reviews, or I get one of my vehement friends telling me how good it is.

Verdict: POSSIBLE DOOM!

37. O.M.A.C. #1
Written by DAN DIDIO and KEITH GIFFEN
Art by KEITH GIFFEN and SCOTT KOBLISH

The only thing at this point can make me read a book that DiDio wrote would be morbid curiosity. He hasn’t really done something that would draw me to a title he’s writing and his recent actions and words have confirmed that he’s the craziest person at DC. I do immensely regret that a writer and artist of Keith Giffen’s quality is attached to this book too. Koblish isn’t overly impressive, in my estimation, but even if he was amazing, I doubt I’d pick this book up.

O.M.A.C. hasn’t been something that I’ve enjoyed reading in comics. I don’t know how or why the heads at DC decided that this book deserved to be done rather than continuing/rebooting Red Robin, or Power Girl, or Superman/Batman, or Adventure Comics, or even Tiny Titans, or maybe even BRING BACK STEPHANIE BROWN YOU ASSHATS!.

Verdict: NO DOOM FOR YOU!

38. Batman: The Dark Knight #1
Written by DAVID FINCH
Art by DAVID FINCH and RICHARD FRIEND

I feel like I’ve talked about this before. Maybe that its the same situation as any Tony Daniel book that dips in quality of both art and story because the one man is working both jobs, but Finch is also notoriously late. I still haven’t seen any of the last few issues of The Dark Knight that he promised that he was going to finish before the reboot, and after having read his other The Dark Knight #1 not too long ago, I’m not looking forward to the story.

This is a Bat book that doesn’t need to be made. There’s better ideas that could have been put into action and better teams that could be doing it. Finch is a great artist, and a good writer, but not a great writer/artist.

Verdict: NO DOOM FOR YOU!

39. All-Star Western #1
Written by JUSTIN GRAY and JIMMY PALMIOTTI
Art by MORITAT

Justin Gray and Jimmy Palmiotti knoww how to write period work, they wrote the hell out of Jonah Hex and they did a pretty good job on the Freedom Fighters.Moritat has done a damn good job pulling art duties on Elephantmen and the less known Outlaw Territory. This book has a good team on it, and I can find nothing that says it won’t be a top quality book.

I do, however, have little interest in reading a Western comic book. I’ve never been too much of a fan of Western’s in general (I know how un-American it is to not like Cowboys) but they’re just not my game. I’m a sci-fi kid, and I just don’t know if I care enough to read this. This might end up being a book that I try out from a friend. I want to read it, its just probably going to end up being a casualty of budget.

Verdict: POSSIBLE DOOM!

40. Justice League Dark #1
Written by PETER MILLIGAN
Art by MIKEL JANIN

Peter Milligan, yes. Mikel Janin, I don’t know. I really have no idea what he’s done before. His raw pencils and cover work is great stuff, but I haven’t seen any of his interiors. I hope the quality carries over. I do see Heavy Metal on his credits which is either a good thing or a very bad thing. I’ll have to wait and see.

I would pick this book up based on Milligan writing Constantine, but the fact that the book also has Shade and Zatanna put it immediately on my pull list. It seems like a great idea for a comic, and it also seems like a comic that won’t get the attention it deserves and will likely be a book that dies a quick death. I want to read it as long as I can.

Verdict: DOOM!

41. Demon Knights #1
Written by PAUL CORNELL
Art by DIOGENES NEVES and OCLAIR ALBERT

Cornell is a damn fine writer. I’ll give everything he writes the benefit of the doubt until it proves itself to be less than good. The team of artists were a close second on having the best names of the reboot, but are also artists that I haven’t seen a lot of. Albert did a lot of cover work on Green Lantern that I’ve seen, and Neves I just can’t bring to mind anything of his I’ve seen. Google tells me he does solid work, so I’ll believe that.

The idea for the book had me worried at first, mostly because I heard rumors that it wasn’t, in fact, Etragian on the cover but some other demon. It didn’t make sense. It also taught me that I should pay less attention to rumors. I am glad to see Etragian in a more regular station in the DCU. This also seems like a book that they might be able to pull together with Justice League Dark very easily as they’re both on “The Edge” and that might be the idea that saves one or both of them if it comes to cancellations. This is another book that I want to read for as long as I can, until DC management realizes that they have a good thing going and decides to get rid of it.

Verdict: DOOM!

42. Frankenstein: Agent Of SHADE #1
Written by JEFF LEMIRE
Art by ALBERTO PONTICELLI

I’ve already spoken of Jeff Lemire, so I won’t do it again here. Ponticelli, I know from Unknown Soldier and therefore will trust him unreservedly…but there is those Heavy Metal credits again.

This is one of the few Flashpoint books that I picked up (the others being the main series and Batman). Mostly because I was a fan of Lemire, but it also seemed like it was a bit more interesting than the other ones. After finishing the 3 parter, I’m not so sure that I want to read this. It didn’t sell me. The team that it developed was lost, and Frankenstein wasn’t treated as a main character or even a character with a distinct personality. I’m hesitant about this one.

Verdict: POSSIBLE DOOM!

43. Resurrection Man #1
Written by DAN ABNETT and ANDY LANNING
Art by FERNANDO DAGNINO

If one thing can guarantee I’ll look at a book, its seeing DnA on the cover. Their Marvel cosmic work, for a while, was the best thing that I was reading. Annihilation is still one of my favorite arcs and I was absolutely frustrated with Marvel and the comic-buying public in general when the cosmic line was cancelled and these two are machines, boasting credits longer than most writers can dream of, so there’s no worries about scheduling. Dagnino did a great job on Generation Lost and I think that this will be a great title with him on it.

I don’t know a lot about Resurrection Man. I know that he is an older property and what I’ve read about him seems like it can make for some damn good comics. This was one of the few comics that really killed me, because the more I read about it, the more I really want to get it, which is really putting a strain on my budget. I suffer so much for you, so that you can know comics vicariously through me.

Verdict: DOOM!

44. I, Vampire #1
Written by JOSHUA HALE FIALKOV
Art by ANDREA SORRENTINO

No clue what to say about this team. I’ve heard a lot of people excited about Fialkov but I haven’t really seen why. Sorrentino gets a lot of acclaim too but all that’s credited is Gears of War…so there’s that. I just don’t know

The story doesn’t seem very compelling to me either. Vampires are starting to frustrate me. Guillermo Del Toro made me love them again with The Strain, but forcing them into the main DCU, like Marvel did with X-Men, just doesn’t feel lovely enough for me to pick this one up.

Verdict: NO DOOM FOR YOU!

45. Voodoo #1
Written by RON MARZ
Art by SAMI BASRI

Ron Marz will always have a little bit of my heart, a little bit that will always try to convince the rest of me that he can do no wrong.That piece is not always correct, but it is very insistent and I usually don’t have the energy to beat it in an argument. He has this bit of my heart because he created Kyle Rayner, and because he performed an ancient ritual to steal that bit of my heart and put it in a jar that he keeps in his bottom drawer. Basri, I like because of Power Girl, but I really dislike Witchblade for some reason, and both he and Marz have done a lot of work on that.

A concept that I can’t understand about Voodoo and Grifter is that Grifter never had that extrasensory perception of beings, that was more of Voodoo’s gag. She could detect the Daemonites. Grifter could use his senses a lot better. Even wikipedia knows that much. It makes me wonder why they’ve given him that power. I’m interested to see why she’s on the run though.The promos imply that she’s probably doing her Daemonite thing and the people she kills are really just them in disguise, but I’ll pick it up to find out.

Verdict: DOOM!

46. Static Shock #1
Written by SCOTT McDANIEL and JOHN ROZUM
Art by SCOTT McDANIEL and JONATHAN GLAPION

As I said to my good buddy ol’ pal Colin, Scott McDaniel hasn’t done a lot of stuff that I’ve been interested in. His writing credits are sparse to say the least, and while I’ve liked a bit of the Nightwing and Batman work he’s done, his art isn’t enough to make me trust him as a writer. Rozum, on the other hand, wrote Zombi, which I liked very much and wish was still around. Frazier Irving is also a talent that I’m sad is missing from DC’s roster. I very much hope that Rozum gets the lions share of the writing duties. And while Galpion has done mostly inking work,and very good ink work at that, I wonder why they need two men for this team when Rozum could probable handle the writing on his own with McDaniel doing the art. Its a funny kind of system DC is working with.

As for Static, I really want to read this book. To be more accurate, I really want to want to read this book. There is little interest for me here though. They haven’t shown me anything that would be different from how they treated him in the special earlier this year or any of the last few times they’ve tried to bring him into the DCU and not known how to handle him as a character. It really makes me miss Dwayne McDuffie.

Verdict: NO DOOM FOR YOU!

47. Hawk And Dove #1
Written by STERLING GATES
Art and Cover by ROB LIEFELD

I’ve been reading Flashpoint: Kid Flash Lost via a friend and haven’t really been impressed. How much of that can be contributed to Johns’ creative insight forcing him to push the character(s) in certain directions is unknown, but it just hasn’t been very great. Rob Liefeld…is a walking joke. Sadly, he is a walking joke that consistently sells comic books. Much like I loved WildC.A.T.S. when I was younger, I loved Youngblood and Youngblood still has those characters that I’ll love. It does not, however, have art that I love. All I see are footless angry people with lots of detail lines for no good reason (read:because detail lines = awesome).

Hawk and Dove, similarly, fill me with little confidence. If DC wasn’t putting out O.M.A.C., I would call this the worst book out of the 52. At least this book has the potential to sell some copies. To be fair, I think its a good idea to give Hawk and Dove a fresh start as superheroes, because I’ve read back, way back into the DC catalog and I still don’t know exactly why Hawk and Dove have always been treated as these absolutely pivotal characters during big events and then disappear for a good 8 years before they’re needed again. I’m going to be avoiding this one like the plague that it is.

Verdict: NO DOOM FOR YOU!

48. Sgt. Rock And The Men Of War #1
Written by IVAN BRANDON
Art by TOM DERENICK

I’m not sure if the title is going to be just Men of War or Sgt. Rock and the Men of War, but I like the latter. It at least pays homage to the book and it might bring in some nostalgia business. Men of War just sounds too generic and, honestly, not very comic book. I’ve never read Viking or Doc Savage, so I’m going off of Brandon’s Streets of Gotham books which were, actually, pretty good. I know Derenick did JLA with Bob Harras back in the late 90’s which were some fun comics and I know he did work on Countdown and Trinity, but I can’t quite pick him out of the swath of writers on both of those.

This Sgt. Rock is not the WWII Frank Rock. This is his grandson Joe, in modern day, fighting in the “battle-scarred landscape carved by the DCU’s Super-Villains”. I think its a great concept, just like Gotham Central or Damage Control for Marvel, where the average people deal with superhuman problems. I’m not as much of a fan of them being “contractors” instead of soldiers, but I suppose they do need a certain amount of freedom of action that military life wouldn’t offer. I can imagine some great stories coming out of a military unit trying to contain a minor villain or a secondary villain while a superhero takes on a major threat. This book will likely be a casualty of budget, though.

Verdict: POSSIBLE DOOM!

49. Stormwatch #1
Written by PAUL CORNELL
Art by MIGUEL SEPULVEDA

I want this book to be so much better than I think it’s actually going to be. Cornell, I’ve already shown my love for on Demon Knight, but it might not be enough to bring me to this title. I absolutely adore Warren Ellis’ run on Stormwatch back on Wildstorm as well as The Authority and Planetary, but again, it might not have a place in DC as it stands. Miguel Sepulveda has drawn some of the best splash pages I’ve seen in recent years during The Thanos Imperative and he’s definitely an artist on the scale that Stormwatch needs.

However. HOWEVER, this book doesn’t really need to exist. This is, again, and excuse for Jim Lee to keep his properties alive and shoehorn big heroes like Apollo, Midnighter, Jack Hawksmoor and Adam One into the main DCU. It all feels unnecessary and I think that every book in the 52 is going to suffer because they’re trying so very hard to be unified. I like Martian Manhunter, but if you have these other universe characters and they never deal with the same problems that the other big heroes deal with, then its still just Wildstorm and DC doing their own, isolated thing. The only thing that will keep me from getting this is how very unsure I am about the story. Maybe on issue 2 or 3 I’ll pick it up, but not now.

Verdict: POSSIBLE DOOM!

50. Deathstroke #1
Written by KYLE HIGGINS
Art by JOE BENNETT and ART THIBERT

This is probably the book that I want to read most right now. Wonder Woman might have given me the least worry, but this book has a lot of awesome potential; that is to say, potential to be awesome. Higgins hasn’t done a lot, but I’ve liked everything of his that I’ve read. Gates of Gotham is pretty amazing right now, Supreme Power is great, his Batman annuals were damn fine comics and even his issue of Captain America was pretty great. I have nothing but confidence that he’ll bring The Terminator back into the spotlight.

I’ve always liked Slade. His portrayals have been less than consistent in the cool factor, but I like the mercenary. I think he might have been a great guest star on Secret Six or something similar. I’m just really excited to see him get his own running series because this can and will probably be the funnest thing DC puts out next month.

Verdict: DOOM!

51. Suicide Squad #1
Written by ADAM GLASS
Art by MARCO RUDY

Don’t know much about Adam Glass, but Deadpool: Suicide Kings was fun at least, so he has the right sadistic sense of humor for this kind of book (though he’s no Gail Simone). Rudy goes good work in everything I’ve seen of his so I don’t have a lot of worry about the creative team. There are other issues with the book though.

So…Harley’s new costume, eh? Its very much…not Harley. Neither is Deadshot really. He looks more like a nameless goon in some cyberpunk anime and until I read it, I wasn’t sure if that was King Shark or not. He’s not supposed to be a hammerhead, right? That being said, I like the idea of Sucide Squad, not as much as Secret Six, but its still fun to see villains doing their thing.

Verdict: POSSIBLE DOOM!

52. Blackhawks #1
Written by MIKE COSTA
Art by KEN LASHLEY

Costa has written a lot of Transformers, which is sure to make Sharp-O giddy with anticipation, but its always been kind of drag-out writing for me that takes way too long for something to happen. I have nothing bad to say about Ken Lashley, though, but that’s kind of the general tone for the reboot. A lot of artists that are good, but they don’t stand out as amazing or even unique.

I don’t know what to think about the Blackhawks team. I can’t get a lot from the promos other than the “Real American Heroes with a Vengeance” vibe, and I’ve heard some rumors about it being a super-science police. Like DC’s reverse version of Marvel’s A.I.M. but I don’t know. Its another legacy reboot from WWII days and it seems like it might be fun, it just won’t be for me.

Verdict: NO DOOM FOR YOU!

TOTALS FOR BOOKS:

DOOM! – 19
POSSIBLE DOOM! – 17
NO DOOM FOR YOU! – 16

THE BOOKS I’M PICKING UP:

JLA #1
Action Comics #1
Batman #1
Batwoman #1
Nightwing #1
DC Universe Presents #1
Green Lantern: New Guardians #1
Swamp Thing #1
Blue Beetle #1
Wonder Woman #1
The Fury of Firestorm #1
Aquaman #1
The Flash #1
Grifter #1
Justice League Dark #1
Demon Knights #1
Resurrection Man #1
Voodoo #1
Deathstroke #1

Next week I take on JLA #1 and will start on my weekly reviews. Or maybe I won’t and instead write a 5,000 word diatribe on why Hal Jordan sucks and Kyle Rayner is awesome…you never know.