The Rest Of My DCnU Week Four Purchases

Unlike the other weeks this month in the DC relaunch, there wasn't much released that enticed me into an impulse buy. I ended up only getting 3 DC books. Superman, JL Dark, and the Flash. And Flash was a last minute addition only because I heard such great things about Manapul's art on the book.

I briefly thought about Firestorm, Aquaman, and Hawkman. But in the end, there wasn'tenough about those books to get me to spend money. Maybe I am missing something. I'll keep my ears open.

But here is the outcome of the rest of last week's purchases.

Justice League Dark seems like a book tailor made for me. I was around when Vertigo first started and devoured the early (pre-Vertigo) Hellblazer book as well as the Peter Milligan Shade the Changing Man. I loved Matt Wagner's Madame Xanadu. And I have always had a soft spot for Zatanna.

Now all of them are together in the mainstream DCU fighting the more mystical threats? It sounds like a 'big name' Shadowpact! I liked Milligan on Shade and Human Target and I am hoping he can recapture some of that insanity in this book.

The first issue is a sort of 'mystical' bringing together of the team to fight the Enchantress. But no one seems to necessarily be in their right mind here. Shade is still wallowing in self-pity and pining for Kathy George. Madame Xanadu seems pretty fatalistic. And a very young looking Zatanna is described as unstable by Batman. This will be a weird team if John Constantine is the sanest amongst them.

The art by Mikal Janin is very good here, although the expressions on characters occasionally seems flat. But it looks like fun. So I am sticking around.

Initial rank: 'Short term'
Verdict: 'Short term' but anticipate long haul

I am admittedly a 'Wally West' guy. I once said if Barry came back I would stop reading comics. And I didn't particularly like the short term Barry Flash title written by Geoff Johns and drawn by Francis Manapul.

But I do like Manapul's work a lot. And there was a lot of publicity about his work on the net, about how great it was. So I bought Flash #1. And I have to agree it is a very beautiful book. Manapul does a good job of conveying super-speed. And there are some Steranko like uses of title pages and sound effects.

But the character of Barry didn't grab me here. There are nice moments to be sure like here where Barry admits that he takes all the cases, all the murders, personally. But there was no 'oomph' here. And the opening plot of a friend of Barry's cloned and wrapped up with some bad guys wasn't enough to get me to come back.

I might buy a Wally book though.

Initial rank: 'Better grab me', especially as an impulse buy
Verdict: 'One and done'