Quick Thoughts on Stormwatch #1

Who the fuck are these people?

Seriously.

Does it seem to anyone else besides that the members of Stormwatch have powers that are rather oblique? For instance, one woman seems to be able to access and influence the media. Certainly this is a power that could have great implications, narratively, ideologically, and satirically, but in this issue she uses it to check Facebook.

Hell, my iPod can do that.

Wait! Do you think that I might be a superhero?

Couldn't be.

Anyways, there is this other guy and he can "talk with cities." Again, this seems like an interesting power, but he mostly just uses it to mess with people and to make a chair. While making a chair from things around you would be handy in our normal people lives, this hardly makes for thrilling super stories.

I wonder if his origin story is watching Dark City too many times?

Maybe I am a superhero?

I did find it nice to see Martian Manhunter though--too bad he looks like a toad man. Worse, he has this lame line about how when he's with the Justice League, he is a hero, but when he's with Stormwatch, he's a warrior. This makes my warm feelings for the guy run a little stinky.

Conclusion: I find Stormwatch confusing and underwhelming. Some of these people have interesting powers, but the writing seems to lack sophistication. It's also kind of ugly. I hate to bash on a book for not being pretty (as that's rather subjective) but it just doesn't look as nice as some of the other comics I read this week.

I will try a few more issues. The team seems to have an interesting mix of characters and maybe they'll ditch the whole cock-out-to-rock-out aesthetic and give quirky characters a quirky comic. Remember Grant Morrison's Doom Patrol? Yeah, be more weird.

I probably wouldn't want to be a hero with Stormwatch. Sorry, warrior. But, they all get their asses kicked. In some cases, BY THE MOON!

Shopping Lists and Dissapointment

I decided a while ago that when September rolled around and the whole DCnU thing launched officially I was going to start buying comics. While, I've never bought comics on a week-by-week basis, I'm no stranger to comics either. I've studied them in university and I have purchased/read many assorted collections or graphic novels. I have a healthy respect for the medium.

And I know enough about superheroes to get by in a crowded comic-con line too. I actually like superheroes and superhero narratives. I've seen the movies, watched the cartoons, read the wiki articles. But that is where it stops, because, seriously, that back log of overly complex and conflicting canon really makes me avoid superhero comics as a whole.

That's why I thought this reboot for DCnU was a fantastic idea. I gotta be smack dab near the middle of DC's target demographic. If I don't want to read about BATMAN every month, something is wrong.

Last Wednesday, I tried to get to the comic shop to pick up the new Justice League #1. Because of work and life I never managed to get there during open hours. And, honestly, Justice League doesn't really spark much or an interest so I wasn't too inclined to try too hard to get myself a copy.

But this Wednesday, September 7th, was a day I was excited for. First off, we had Jeff Lemire's Animal Man. I've been a fan of Lemire's since he was still publishing the Essex County stuff and I just recently started reading Sweet Tooth. I also love Grant Morrison's work with Animal Man too. So the combo of Lemire and Animal Man really held my interest in the DCnU itself.

I also wanted to get my hands on the new Batgirl. Aside from already selling out it's first two prints, I wanted to try reading a comic by a team a women. The medium has its issues with women and feminism so I wanted to see what the relaunch would do to try to solve that.

What I hoped to pick up today at the comic shop:

Animal Man  
Batgirl 
Swamp Thing (supposedly one of DC's darker and more horror oriented new books) 
Stormwatch (I'm interested in the idea of merging canons and worlds)
and then maybe Superman and Batman titles if they looked okay in a flip through.

I had to stay late at work today though so I didn't get to the comic store very early and I could tell by the selection. Both Animal Man and Batgirl were already sold out. In the end, I picked up:

Swamp Thing
Superman Action Comics
Justice League International (BOOSTER GOLD!!!)
Stormwatch

I've already read two of them and I feel pretty positive about the experience so far. I'm looking forward to my potential new life as a month-by-month comic reader.

Discussion on each book to come in the next week.

Now, to find those two books.