Written by Paul Cornell
Illustrated by Miguel SepulvedaThey are Stormwatch, a dangerous super human police force whose existence is kept secret from the world Directly following the ominous events of SUPERMAN #1, Adam One leads half the Stormwatch team to recover the [INFORMATION REDACTED] from deep in the Himalayas. Meanwhile, Jack Hawksmoor and the rest of the Stormwatch crew look to recruit two of the deadliest super humans on the planet: Midnighter and Apollo! And if they say no? Perhaps the Martian Manhunter can change their minds…
I’m a long-time fan of Stormwatch, from its inception to Warren Ellis’ work on the title (and on The Authority) and all the way to Stormwatch: Post Human Division from Christos Gage and Doug Mahnke. This series, in my mind, has been criminally underrated since its arrival (save perhaps during the Authority stretch).
So when I heard that Paul Cornell was going to be launching it as part of the new DC 52, I was overjoyed. It’s a great fit in my mind, and the addition of Martian Manhunter to the story was an inspired one.
Now that I’ve read his first issue though, do I still have those happy happy, joy joy thoughts in me?
Find out after the jump.
The short answer to the question that closed the intro is a resounding “sort of.”
On one hand, I’m going to give Cornell a little leeway here, because his job is arguably harder than many of the other creators involved with the DCnU. The characters he is working with are mostly unknown to the average comic fan (I mean the average one, not voracious readers like us at MC and you if you are questioning my suggestion) and completely unknown to non-fans or lapsed fans. His job, first and foremost, is to introduce these characters to us as readers, and it is that task that he is bound to at least try and do in this first issue.
So in my mind, after this issue, the series should improve significantly.
I say should in italics because after this first issue, I’m a little uncertain about the whole venture. It’s actually a pretty troubling start, and there are problems across all aspects of the book.
As a long-time reader, I’m destined to be harder on it if it starts off poorly (just like I’d be more supportive if it was good). But this book is one that seems to have an excellent formula for it going in as well as a lot of great characters to build off of, and Cornell could still tell great stories within that idea while making these characters his own. Instead, the already large cast is added to (we’re given new characters in Adam One (who reads a lot like the character of the same name from Wanted), The Projectionist and Eminence of Blades, as well as Martian Manhunter being added) and we’re given really no time with anyone. If I didn’t know half of the cast already, I’d be very lost trying to grasp these characters. As it stands, the introduction of every character feels rushed and half-hearted, and nary a connection is made with anyone within this book.
Apollo is especially poorly handled, as he feels like a derivative of Superman even more than usual here, with the street level justice the godly Apollo deals feeling like a poor man’s version of what Grant Morrison is doing in Action Comics. Apollo as a character isn’t special because of how he is similar to Superman – it’s because of how he is different. If he’s basically just the same, then what is the purpose of his existence?
As for the plot, we’re given a few threads that all feel poorly introduced (the bit with Adam One and Jenny Quantum at the end of the book is the best, but its is tied to the actions of a book that won’t come out for three weeks) while Cornell tries to tie the book into an excellent plot point from the Wildstorm iterations of this book (Century Babies) that feels like it has no place at all in the DCU, new or old.
Continued belowThere are elements of goodness in Cornell’s initial work. I do like his handling of Jenny Quantum and Adam One together. I like the way Martian Manhunter fits. I like the sassy nature of the dialogue, as it fits well with the characters. This issue, from a written standpoint, felt like Cornell was desperate to get all of his chess pieces on the board so he can start us on the main course.
Coming in to the book, my main problem was that I just was not a huge fan of Miguel Sepulveda, and I quickly realized that this book was not going to be something that changed my mind on that. His character work and interactions are just awkward and poorly designed, and I found myself having to turn back pages to figure out how visuals fit together often. It was a frustrating read from a visual standpoint, and the same problems I’ve always had with Sepulveda are present throughout here.
Like in the writing, the best sequence in the book was the arctic adventure Adam One and Jenny Quantum go on, but really, three pages out of twenty is not a good ratio for quality art pages versus total pages.
To me as a reader, I find it hard to imagine that this issue sold anyone, new reader or old, on the quality and promise of this book. While I still believe in Cornell and believe that this arc will come around and end up as a success, I am hugely skeptical right now and will give it one more issue to get its act together. But in terms of debuts from the DCnU, I’d have to say this is the worst one I’ve read so far.
As much as it kills me to say that.
Final Verdict: 4.0 – Pass
