Firsty book roundup

Not all that long after my last set of comics reviews there are several new books or new storylines and such.

Superman 701 is hardly a first issue but it is the first under the direction of J. Michael Straczynski with art by Eddy Barrows and J. P. Mayer. Much anticipated. I found myself thinking most of the "relevant" Green Lantern/Green Arrow by Dennis O'Neil and Neal Adams from almost thirty years ago which had the two heroes battling drug dealers. This takes Superman very down to Earth battling drug dealers and wannabe suicides and other such things in south Philly. An alleged south Philly maybe because 500 S 48 I'm not sure is right. It's a nice story, touching in parts. Artwork is nicely down to earth and a perfect compliment to the writing. Third page from the end has a wonderful question left unanswered and the sequence quite beautiful. I'm not sure, though, that a comic which reminds me of a 1971 series is the exciting new way to bring Superman into the 2010s. But let's be clear:  I'll happily buy #702.

Speaking of Neal Adams he is commencing a 12-issue Batman: Odyssey mini-series for DC. Batman, Robin, ManBat, all sorts of stuff. Highly stylized art that one panel has me wanting to study and the next which looks like a grotesquerie. The story gets progressively less interesting and less comprehensible. This is a one-and-out for me.

I decided to pick up Atom Special #1. This was nicely written, liked the art, a bit more an origin retelling than I had expected but still a perfectly pleasant story that succeeded in it's purpose of making me want to read more, which can conveniently be found as the 2nd feature backup in Adventure Comics. Just one problem, that I am surprised to find myself not liking the main feature in Adventure. In my earlier days on the comics front the Paul Levitz Legion of Superheroes was a real highlight. Very excited to hear he would be returning to write Legion as he segued from his job as DC Comics publisher. I am not sure how long I will stay for the new Legion stories he is writing in the Legion book, but I know the stories he is writing for Adventure that focus on the early Superboy and Legion days aren't doing it for me at all. Maybe just a prologue thing and I will like when he gets into story stories instead of origin stories? But I won't buy Adventure for the Atom backup.

The other first issue on my pile is Comic Book Guy #1, a miniseries spinoff from The Simpsons. The cover is as much fun as the story and I say that in a good way. Each copy has four different covers modeled on classic comic covers. People more learned than I can identify all four of them. I less learned chose to default to liking the most the one based on Crisis on Infinite Earths from 25 years ago because I recognized that one. Not entirely sure this lives up to all my expectations for it but it also isn't looking to me to be the perennial disappointment of Simpsons Super Spectacular. Silly, antic, if you think you might like this you probably will and if you can't name the comic book shop owned by Comic Book Guy you probably won't.

Human Target #6 ended the miniseries pleasantly enough. After a few issues flirting with the current Booster Gold story arc it isn't doing it for me come the end of issue #34. I did enjoy the second issue of Red Hood: The Lost Days so as with Human Target can probably stick around for six issues unless it gets bad in a hurry. And as to DMZ #55, I still wish the book were a little less leisurely but I am still happily along for the ride.This issue starts a new story arc.