There were relatively few new #1’s on the shelves this week compared to the glut we had leading up to Halloween, but the second of the fall holidays didn’t prove to inspire much in the comics world. There was one solid golden egg in the bunch, thankfully, but most of the new stories in comics this week amount to not much more than fodder.
The best of this week’s new offerings is from Image, who continually serve up great creator owned books. Their latest is Clone #1, from first time comic writer David Schulner, gives us an exciting story of one man’s realization that he’s not exactly who he thinks he is. Dr. Luke Taylor is plagued by nightmares of people trying to murder him, sabotaging what little sleep he can get, as he faces the stress of becoming a father. A man identical to him appears in his kitchen with a bullet in his belly, and Taylor’s 8-months pregnant wife is kidnapped by yet another photocopy of himself, thus launching our protagonist into an adventure that has the feel of a real world Matrix. There is very little sci-fi here, beyond the cloning itself, but the thrills don’t need electronic lights and flying spaceships. Dr. Taylor’s wife Amelia is one tough lady, resilient and not willing to be a victim even when she’s so near to being a new mom, managing to almost escape her captor and showing very little fear in the face of a frightening situation. It’s nice to see a book about a couple both trying to salvage a life that has suddenly unraveled.
The second indie offering this week is also from Image, but falls a bit short in comparison to Clone. Comeback #1 (of 5) is a tale about a professional agency that can use time travel to cure your ills and issues. Have a wife who dies suddenly in a car accident? Comeback’s operatives can travel back and sort things out for you, at a fairly hefty price. However, this kind of “fixing” isn’t strictly speaking “legal”, and when one agent gets burnt out, can his partner put back together a mission gone wrong? Sadly, the story is all over the place, with very little differentiation between the main players. After reading it, I had to go back and look up the various characters names, as neither the names nor the identities of the characters are well established. The art here by relative newcomer Michael Walsh reflects influences by Darwin Cooke, and the style lends itself to gritty realism, thought he story is obviously science fiction. Also, the washed out color pallet lends to an almost throw back feel, when the story is anything but. It’s a near miss, for certain, but a miss nonetheless.
The rest of this week’s #1’s are characters that most comic readers and nerds of various ilk know very well. Of these, the only palatable offering is Indestructible Hulk #1, another chapter in the mainstream Marvel Universe’s MarvelNOW! series. These stories can’t really be considered reboots, as they drop right into decades-long tales that have been running about the Hulk, but this series takes Dr. Bruce Banner and his angry alter-ego in a new direction. Banner, similar to the way he was portrayed in the recent Avengers film, is one of the great minds on the planet, on par with Tony Stark and the Fantastic Four’s Reed Richards. However, he’s spent his life on the run and trying to cure himself, and now’s he’s just fed up. Banner offers himself to S.H.I.E.L.D. as a scientist in residence, as long as they help him control what he has come to feel is inevitable: The Hulk. Banner has reconciled himself to “going Green”, and wants to do more to help the world by working on something other than preventing his transformations. It’s not that interesting a concept, since it’s essentially what most of us already saw in the film, but it could be a positive new direction in the Hulk pantheon. However, the chaotic nature of the artwork here by Lienil Yu is a bit like watching a bad Michael Bay film. While it’s a good style for The Hulk’s brute force, it doesn’t serve Banner’s new found purpose very well, and makes for a difficult read.
Even worse than the Hulk’s new frenetic direction is the unorthodox beginning to the new Captain America #1. Steve Rodgers, everyone’s favorite Sentinel of Liberty, is in the midst of something of a mid-life crisis around his 90th birthday. Is he throwing himself too heavily into his work, never taking off the winged helmet or putting down the shield? Is his love life stagnant, or would settling down as a married man make things simpler? Sadly, these questions are never answered, as he boards a subway that transports him to … well to somewhere. On one page, Cap is pondering his future, and on the next he’s trapped in an alternate dimension where he’s being tortured and experimented on by the robotic remains of Dr. Arnim Zola. This is supposed to be Captain America fighting way outside the box in a sort of sci-fi adventure, but it poorly suits the red, white and blue hero. Cap is at his best when he’s acting as a leader to the Avengers, or promoting the agenda of his beloved country, but bouncing around the universe like Flash Gordon is most certainly not his wheelhouse. This tale is ultimately absurd, and again, the artist doesn’t seem to match the story. The legendary John Romita Jr. (Kick-Ass) has a distinctive style that lends itself to Cap’s real world style ass-kicking, but not to outer space heroics, and it feels out of place. A poor start to a new Captain America series, this is one that can be passed over by even the most avid Marvel fans.
The last one on offer is a disappointing new series for a character that’s reached legendary status over the last twenty-odd years in the UK. Judge Dredd #1 from IDW reads as if it was intended to build upon the newest film franchise, reintroducing the serialized hero to a new generation. It features yet another ham-handed introduction to Mega City One and the role of the Judges in the post-apocalyptic world they protect and serve. Here, the robots who help manage the mega-metropolis have decided that enough is enough, and if Dredd thought the futures criminals were nasty, just wait until its machines decide to take him on. Sadly, this is so stylized, and not remotely respectful of the campy but exciting nature of the original series, that it leaves little to be desired. There’s almost no new material here to enjoy, frankly, and I’d almost rather re-watch the recent film (though even this sad offering won’t tempt me to watch Stallone’s turn as Dredd again. At least in the new comic he never takes his helmet off.)
SO that’s that, true believers. You may now enjoy your turkey and dressing left-overs knowing that if you didn’t make it to the comic store this week, you need not waste much of today’s Black Friday shopping frenzy on the #1’s in comics. Hopefully we’ll have better offerings next week, and we’ll be back here to let you know which ones are the best.
