This no am new page for DC! This am same as always. This no am breath of stale air! Me am no refreshed by change of pace! DC am putting out same old stuff and me sick of that! This am proof DC is stuck in mud.
Don’t join us for our spoiler filled review of “Bizarro” #1!
Written by Heath Corson
Illustrated by Gustavo Duarte
Hate HARLEY QUINN? Then you will super hate BIZARRO! Bizarro star of worstest comic ever! Go ahead and miss it! If there’s one thing this issue not have it these two things: Jimmy Olsen and Chupacabras!
Don’t miss the start of this six-issue all-ages miniseries!
Wow, I wish I could keep that up for the entire review, but that would get really difficult really fast.
The biggest compliment I can give to “Bizarro” #1 is that it doesn’t feel like it was published by DC. For a while there, there have been a lot of criticisms thrown DC’s way for having a publishing line that focused on overly dark and unnecessarily violent and mature stories that felt out of place for a company publishing superhero stories. “Bizarro” #1, however, is the start of a six issue miniseries by Heath Corson and Gustavo Duarte that focuses on being an all-ages comedy book and that is a complete breath of fresh air for publisher. Even if it doesn’t quite have the spark that the book feels like it should.
The story of “Bizarro” #1, such as it is, takes place pretty much directly following the Divergence eight page preview, but the book itself thankfully catches you up to speed if you missed it. Not that there’s much to catch up on, really. The gist is: Jimmy Olsen is road-tripping with Bizarro to Canada in order to write a book about the experience. That’s about as much depth as this book gets, really. The crux of this book isn’t really the story, but more the hijinks that Jimmy and Bizarro walk into. This is where the inclusion of Jimmy begins to actually make sense as Corson and Duarte use him as the straight man foil to Bizarro’s more wacky band of comedy. However, while most of the humour of the book is pretty on point, around the middle of the book it begins to fall flat and without any depth of story to back it up, it begins to really drag.
For a first issue, this isn’t the worst I’ve come across, but the fact is that unless you crack up laughing at every page, there’s not a lot else here for you. Sure, there’s something of a story about a Pharaoh-themed used car salesman (I’m not even kidding) that actually picks up in the final pages of the book, but by then I’d found myself losing interest in the issue. Thankfully, this is only the start of a miniseries and I can imagine the story getting better as it develops, but if the humour of “Bizarro” doesn’t immediately grab then there’s likely not a lot here for you, sadly.
While the writing may not all be there, the artwork by Gustavo Duarte feels like a complete breath of fresh air for DC. Eschewing the realistic house style that DC has employed for the past four years or so, Duarte’s artwork feels entirely unique in its exaggerated cartoon-y style. It feels like the kind of art that would come out of “Mad Magazine,” which, when you think about it, should feel right at home at DC. Duarte brings a lot of the visual comedy of the book to the page with excellent results and manages to marry the mundane feeling of a road trip with the fantastic presence of Bizarro.
The only thing that really makes Duarte’s art feel strange is the amount of white space on the page. Perhaps it’s the fact that DC’s books haven’t featured this much white space on the page in years, but the simplicity of the art makes some of the panels – especially those at the bottom of some of the pages – feel a little sparse. This works with the all-ages feel of the book, but it made the book feel a little strange to read as it felt like some of the pages could have used a more detailed background to really bring it to life.
Continued belowThe real highlight of the art of this book is one that, like the best kind of RKO, came outta nowhere. Towards the end of the issue came a page by Bill Sienkiewicz, who illustrates Bizarro’s dreams. The page is simply beautiful and the harsh, scratchy lines of Sienkiewicz and the garish colours over them stand in great contrast to Duarte’s clean, strong lines in the rest of the book. It also gives a look inside the mind of Bizarro and hints at hidden depth that is not really seen throughout the rest of the issue. This makes me a little sad as that page, combined with a couple of story revelations late in the issue, got me pretty jazzed for the next issue, but it came after the middle of the issue which simply didn’t grab my attention.
“Bizarro” #1 is a pretty mixed bag of a first issue. While most of the humour lands and the set-up of having Jimmy Olsen and Bizarro as an odd couple is pretty interesting, there’s not much in the way of a story to back it up. Thankfully, the artwork by Gustavo Duarte and a pin-up worthy page by Bill Sienkiewicz makes the book look pretty gorgeous, it doesn’t really help the fact that it feels a little shallow in terms of content. This new direction for DC implementing different artistic styles with a focus on more lighthearted content has definitely created a fun book, but there’s a still a problem of style over substance.
Final Verdict: 5.9 – By no means a bad book, but there’s not enough here to make me want to rave about it. Perhaps wait for the trade and read it when you need a chuckle.
