BRING ON THE BAD GUYS!!!



I have always had a soft spot for the villains in comics.  They really are the ones who drive the action.  From the common street thug that murdered the Waynes and created Batman to the evil Asgardian god of fear currently running roughshod over the entire Marvel Universe, it's the villains that make the heroes do their acts of heroism.  Sure, they might have to deal with a flood or a fire or killer bees or a giant meteor heading towards the earth but are those the stories we remember best?  Heck no!  It's the time Superman got killed by Doomsday, the time the Joker murdered everyone on the set of the David Letterman show or when Norman Osbourne took over the Avengers and made a new team comprised entirely of baddies that we really remember.

You also cannot ignore that sometimes the villains, the bad guys, the dudes we are supposed to root against, get to have all the fun.  They get to act out on their baser instincts that we suppress every day.  They have a bad day at work and they shoot the annoying guy down the corner in the face.  They get cut off in traffic, they run the guy off the road or blow up his car.  All the things we can never do in real life but wish we sometimes could just to blow off steam, they get to do.  It's cathartic violence.

This I bring to you four books today from the new DCU that feature the villains.  I may be a bit generous in reviewing these books because of my fondness for villainy so take these with a grain of salt.

                          DEATH STROKE #1

Most people know Deathstroke from Teen Titans, either the classic Wolfman/Perez comic or the recent animated series (where he was just known as Slade).  Either way, he's a pretty famous villain in the DC Universe.  Slade Wilson a.k.a. Deathstroke the Terminator is a mercenary for hire.  He'll take any job no matter how messy as long as the price is right.  Altered to have enhanced reflexes, superior strength and combat skills that put him on par with Batman on his best days, Deathstroke is (as the comic says) "A Major Damn Badass."

Surprisingly of all the first issues I have read so far, Deathstroke #1 tells a nice, self-contained story that gives you a feel for who the character is, what he can do and where he fits into the world.  It doesn't have a to be continued blurb, doesn't leave you guessing as to what happens next and is the only book so far that just anyone can pick up, read and feel they've gotten a whole story.  That's good.

What isn't so good is that the book doesn't leave you feeling like you really WANT to follow this character.  He really has no redeeming qualities aside from his aforementioned badassitude.  He comes across as a jerk, a loner and a murdering asshole.  Let me explain.  Early in the story, Slade is given a job and given some teammates to work with.  To say they are a little green is an understatement.  They are n00bs in the world of mercenary work, three 20 somethings who call themselves The Alpha Dawgs (they chose that name over The Harmory).

They outfit Deathstroke with some new guns, tech and give him so intel and logistic support, all of which he begrudgingly accepts because he is being paid to do so.  The mission in relatively generic and of course, runs into some problems involving genetically modified soldiers.  In the end, of course, Deathstroke completes the contract, kills the enemies and then, in an act of utter contempt for his new allies, guns them all down with the weapons they made for him.  It's supposed to come across as a badass act of a loner but it just seems to me like some dick killing a bunch of annoying kids.

I like the character back in the old DCU but this version is going to stay a one issue wonder for me.

Only Recommended if you really like Slade.


                        DEMON KNIGHTS #1

Now this book was a surprise.  I didn't except anything from it, thought it would be a throwaway that I was just getting because of the deal I'm getting from Tribe Comics and Games but found it strangely compelling and interesting.

Here's the setup.  It's the Dark Ages, Camelot fell 400 years ago, the world is plagued by darkness and evil, nobility is barely known and the forces of chaos and magic hold sway over the land in the form of the foul wizard Mordru (Yes THE Mordru, enemy of the Justice Society of America and much later, the Legion of Super-Heroes).  Enter our "heroes".  Standing against the mystical might of Mordru and his mysterious Queen are; Jason Blood, the host of the Demon Etrigan who was bound to him during the fall of Camelot, Madame Xanadu who tried to take Excalibur as it was thrown into the waters after during the fall and thus she was cursed with immortality, the female Shining Knight Sir Ystin (who is very girlish in appearance) and the immortal Caveman who will later plague to heroes of the modern DCU, Vandal Savage.

What I like is how this book takes the conventions of the medieval fantasy genre and blends them in a mashup with DC characters we know.  It comes across as a D&D version of Secret Six.  The characters even meet in a tavern through sheer coincidence (or so it seems right now) in what has to be the hoariest of genre conventions.  Yet, they each have a role to play.  Jason Blood is the reluctant monster who can change into the fire-spewing, armored Etrigan by reciting a simple incantation, Madame Xanadu is apparently the mage of the group, Shining Knight is just that, a Knight and Vandal Savage is a hulking barbarian with an axe.  All the ingredients needed for a rip-roaring fantasy adventure.  Heck, by the end there are even dragons.

This is fun and a nice change of pace from the actual super-heroics going on in the other books without leaving me feeling cold like Men of War did.  My only complaint (and it's a big one to me) is that Etrigan apparently does not rhyme in this book.  Whether that is going to be explained or not, it bothers me.  Despite this annoyance, I am going to come back for at least a second helping of this amusing romp.

Recommended.

                          RED LANTERNS #1

I have been reading Green Lantern for a while now and though some of my friends are not big fans of the other Lantern Corps, I think it's a pretty neat idea.  I really enjoyed Blackest Night and was sort of glad to see that the characters introduced in that (and the series leading up to it) got to stay in the new DCU.  Heck, it seems the Green Lantern universe has been barely touched by the reboot in the least.  Then again, the entire basic cosmology of the Lantern backstory and the DCU as a whole was altered in the GL titles BEFORE the reboot so, there is that.   But of all the Lanterns introduced in the recent War of Light, I really like the Reds.  Powered by rage and anger, they oppose the Green Lanterns and the Sinestro Corps in equal measure, guided by their leader Atrocitus who blames the Guardians for the destruction of his entire Space Sector and Sinestro for his defeat when he first came to seek vengeance.

I can chock my entire love of the Reds to once character, Dex-Starr.  Who is Dex-Starr you might ask.  Well, this, my friends, is Dex-Starr.

Dex-Starr is the Red Lantern kitty cat.  He's not some kind of space cat, he's not super-intelligent or able to talk.  He's just a cat that had a really, really bad day, got really pissed off and attracted the attention of a Red Lantern ring.  Imagine that, a REALLY, REALLY angry kitty with the ability to kill you by shooting flaming napalm from his mouth.  Yeah, scary isn't it?  I love Dex-Starr.

And though this book is almost ENTIRELY setup and backstory for the Red Lanterns, the opening few pages where a horde of alien sadists confront first Dex-Starr and then Atrocitus himself (who enters with the best line ever spoken by a pissed-off Red space murderer "What Are You Doing To My Cat?") is worth the price of admission in my book.  The rest is merely letting the uninitiated know who these characters are and what they stand for.  It's nothing special, except for the opening.  Plus, the art is by Ed Benes, who I have really enjoyed ever since he did the last few issues of Peter David's Supergirl run.

Still, I will come back for more. If only to see the further adventures of death kitty with a power ring.

Recommended!

                         SUICIDE SQUAD #1

This has to be one of the most controversial books in the entire relaunch.  Not only is it a revival of a beloved title from the past, it features revamps of two characters with massive fan followings; Harley Quinn and Amanda Waller.  A lot of sites I have seen really, really, really hated this book.  I guess I stand in the minority when I say, I like it.  I like it a lot.

I did not read the original Suicide Squad (though I will if they ever bring our a Showcase volume or some trades) but the basic premise is known to me and remains intact.  Super villains are given a way to commute their sentences in exchange for being part of a government black ops unit.  Killers, mercenaries, assassins and psychopaths are told they can have their records wiped clean if they do what they do best for Uncle Sam.  Of course, there is a catch.  They don't call it the Suicide Squad for nothing.  To earn that Pardon you have to survive the missions you are given and obey orders.  Fail to obey and your handlers detonate the bomb in your body, killing you.

I won't go into too much detail on the plot here.  It's kind of a transparent bait and switch plot once you get into it but the story isn't what really grabbed me.  It's the premise and the characters.  I like the new Harley.  Sue me.  I just do.  I even like her new costume to a certain extent.  Here it is:

And yes, it's a total departure from her costume previously.  It's not the animated series costume in the least but this also isn't animated Harley.  This is a seriously messed up girl who got caught murdering people to try and win back her psychotic boyfriend who went missing.  She's a true wild card and I like that in her, I like that you have no idea what she might do on the team.  I also have a feeling she might be the one to last the longest.  Which is good.

The other characters I like in the first issue are Deadshot (though not so fond of his new costume) and King Shark, who I REALLY like the redesign of.  Before, he was kind of a Great White type thing, a really generic shark man.  Now, he's a Hammerhead and I've always loved the way those things look. So, yeah!

The new Amanda Waller is also a sticking point for people.  Before she was known as The Whale because she was a massive, solid block of muscle.  Now, she looks more like Pam Grier.  That's ok with me.  As long as she has the same basic personality and force of will, I can accept a little weight loss.  Not  deal killer for me at all.  Then again, I would read any book about a team of super-criminals doing wetworks operations.  That just appeals to me on some level.

I like this book though your mileage may very.

Cautiously recommended for those who aren't caught up in things having to be the way they used to.