Aquaman #0: We find out how Aquaman was conceived, born and raised but in a typical Johnsian move it's drenched in blood - not least when he's nearly eaten by a shark before he learns he can talk to it. At the end it takes us with him to Atlantis. So are we sticking with the origin for a while since Johns' run has shown us Arthur destroys it? Or is it going to be just another origin loose end waiting for him to tell it elsewhere? GJ makes my head hurt in a bad way. I really enjoyed the first couple of issues of this book, but the more Johns-y it gets the more unreadable it is.
Batman Inc #0: OK, so this book confirms that the previous Batman Inc book didn't happen and that Bruce started this Batman Inc some time after Damian became Robin (but presumably not long after). That's OK though, because it lets GMoz tell the story again which he does with aplomb and arguably better (certainly more compactly) than he did last time. A thoroughly good read but perhaps unfortunately one which is best undertaken already knowing who all the characters being introduced for the first time are. That can't be a normal expectatio after a reboot, surely?
Batman The Dark Knight #0: OH FOR FUCK'S SAKE, NOT ANOTHER BATMAN ORIGIN THIS MONTH. This one, at least goes back to Crime Alley and the shooting of Thomas and Martha which MUST be a giant conspiracy because the two bestest people that ever lived ever EVARR couldn't have just been randomly shot. Except they were. Ultimately this is Batmang Year One in 20 pages but with more conspiracy emo bollocks, plus we find out that Batman knew about teh Court of Owls before he was even Batman which contradicts Scott Snyder's whole OWLS arc. An editor! An editor! My kingdom for an editor!
I Vampire #0: Andrew gets turned into a vampire by Cain himself, which is how he gets to be such a GRATE FANTASTIC GUY in about #5. A bunch of pretentious twaddle telling a story going nowhere, which ends with a whole page of quoted Shakespeare. It's very pretty, as ever, but I want the comedy back. Nul point.
Justice League Dark #0: And with a wink, all of Alan Moore's characterisation and all of Hellblazer is gone. Constantine became who he is in idol worship over a guy who showed up in JLD#12, and because the pair of them and Zatanna were in an episode of Charmed. An insult to anyone who's been reading DC and/or Vertigo books for any length of time.
Red Lanterns #0: Atrocitus becomes Atrocitus after his daughter fronts up to a Manhunter who then decides to eliminate the whole planet because someone jaywalks. Atrocitus decides he wants to fuck the space creature who looks like three or four octopodes welded and the fact that he feels love proves that he doesn't and could never have felt love or something and is therefore shown to always have been a creature of pure rage. As a result Bleez, the goat faced one and Bouncing Rage Boy turn up in the last page. Presumably someone, somewhere thought this was good. Someone other than Pete Milligan, I mean.
Hawkman #0: WTF dude? Has Rob not been reading Hawkman, including the issues HE WROTE HIMSELF? This is all about Katar Hol, who it looks like from this issue onwards is going to become the Hawkman of the Johnsiverse. Did the previous 12 issues not happen or what? Not a soft reboot, this is a hard reboot. Has Rob done this out of spite and nobody checked up on it?
Supergirl #0: These are the events on Krypton leading up to the Johnsiverse Supergirl #1. Do you ever think it diminishes the story of Kal-el, specifically how everybody supposedly though Jor-el was mad for preparing for the end times, if lots of other Kryptonians thought the same thing and were preparing magical space ships to send their children too? Or how Kara leaves Krypton before Kal-el and is a teenager compared to his infancy, yet he is older than her on Earth? And what is the Johnsiverse Superboy doing on Krypton talking to Kara's mum? I don't understand who this is supposed to appeal to, if I'm honest.
Superman #0: And with a single bound, a story where Jor-el is thought mad by everyone because he says Krypton is about to explode. It's really pretty entertaining stuff, but doesn't add anything to the mythology that already exists. You don't need to read it, but it's diverting at least.
Talon #0: I'm split on this. It could go somewhere - Calvin Rose is basically the anti-Dick Grayson. He's a child performer at the Flying Graysons' circus who is taken away by a rich benefactor and taught to be a better acrobat, how to fight yadda yadda yadda but it turns out the OWLS were training him. And now he's decided to split from them and will fight crime (probably) and the OWLS are after him. On the other hand: 1) we don't really need another Robin 2) The battyverse is pretty full and I'm not sure we need another hero 3) Talon being good enough to escape the OWLS maze without breaking sweat sort of implies he's better than Batman and weakens the impact of Scott Snyder's OWLS plot and 4) If, as Nightwang has told us Dick was some kind of chosen one and the whole circus thing was to make him a fighter doesn't that make Talon a kind of failed experiment? Conflicted but still potentially interested, I guess.
Teen Titans #0: Ummm... wut? The editorially changed version of the first Titans collection says this didn't happen. I guess that proves that Scott Lobdell didn't approve the edit. This is a decent enough telling of the Tim Drake story but I have no idea what DC are playing at at this point. Hang on. To remind myself of the story it seems Scott Lobdell himself announced at SDCC that Tim Drake had never been Robin. We are not at war with Oceania, we have never been at war with Oceania.
Flash #0: BIFF! BANG! POW! Take that Geoff Johns! Flashpoint is erased from the Johnsiverse! (which is odd, as it's what caused the Johnsiverse) As ever, the Flash can be relied on to thoroughly entertain and is easily orders of magnitude better than anything else this week. Nothing else is worth your money. Can we have some more Silver Age style stuff next? Maybe a new take on this?
Ta.
Firestorm #0: After #12 killed off all the Firestorms, #0 retells #1 set after #12. Seriously, same villain, the works. Throw in a couple of flashbacks to Firestorm #1-12 and you have the laziest issue published all month. Yes, even lazier than Rob L trying to pass off all that Perez/Wolfman Deathstroke material as his own. Jesus, that's lazy.
Voodoo #0: And so we close the month out with an origin of a cancelled title. Seems somehow appropriate. Completely irrelevant, but possibly needs to be told since Voodoo is apparently going to ake over the Grifter book. Why not call it Wildstorm and be done with it? I bet nobody's ever done that before... I sort of like this book, but I don't understand what it's FOR and accordingly couldn't recommend it to anyone who hasn't read the first 12 and isn't intending reading Grifter. So that'll be none of you then.
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