DC’s big weekly event for 2009 is something completely different that their interlocking, heavily tied to continuity, previous entries of
52, COUNTDOWN, and
TRINITY, with a refreshing emphasis simply on comic art.
WEDNESDAY COMICS is a throwback to the Sunday Comics broadsheets from long ago, when features would take up half to full pages and give the artists a big canvas to play on. Big name artists and writers and a big, 20 inch x 14 inch, page to play on, without any editorial mandate to tie into continuity is certainly something we haven’t seen before. So, how did it turn out?
The first feature of WEDNESDAY COMICS is “Batman” by the BROKEN CITY team of Brian Azzarello and Eduardo Risso. Right from the start they take advantage of the format with life size, frightened eyes staring out at the reader. That’s a striking image and helps sell the menace early. And, then it’s right to the basics of the story, with a conversation between Batman and Gordon establishing that a banker has been kidnapped with a note promising to kill him at midnight with no ransom demand, and it’s striking midnight as they speak.
The art of the feature is very moody and strong. It’s a very pleasant experience to hold a page of this size and soak in all the art. However, as you can tell from the synopsis, one page of story is just enough for an introduction and cliffhanger. Azzarello shoots for mood building in the first installment and hits the mark, but there’s some heavy lifting to be done in subsequent installments to keep it satisfying from week to week. Some patience is going to be required on the reader’s part here.
As for the other features…
“Kamandi” is by Dave Gibbons and Ryan Sook and takes a page out of Hal Foster’s PRINCE VALIANT in its storytelling. That storytelling convention helps it stand out from the other features in the book and I think it’s the clear winner of the first issue.
“Superman” is by John Arcudi and (Friend of BOF) Lee Bermejo and features Superman taking on an alien invader who brings up the question of whether Superman truly belongs with the humans or not. Bermejo’s art is really polished, maybe too polished in respect to Superman who has something of a plastic gloss about him.
“Deadman” is by Dave Bullock and Vinton Heuck which basically recaps Boston Brands origin and puts him hot on the trail of a serial killer. The art style is reminiscent of Darwyn Cooke and Bruce Timm.
“Green Lantern” is written by Kurt Busiek and drawn by Joe Quinones. It’s almost all setup, Hal Jordan doesn’t appear until the last panel, but it’s a retro style story, apparently set in the late 1950s, with the gang from Ferris Aircraft hitting the local lounge for Happy Hour.
“Metamorpho” is one of the highlights of the issue by Neil Gaiman and Mike Allred. The element man saves his girlfriend from a giant clam before getting dragged into Simon Stagg’s latest scheme, which promises globe trotting adventure. It’s retro, including thought balloons, and fast paced. Looks like a lot of fun.
“Teen Titan” is by Eddie Berganza and Sean Galloway. To be honest, I’m not sure what to make of this feature which seems to be have little plot momentum and any introduction to the individual characters. The coloring is surprisingly dull compared to the rest of the features as well. This is a misfire to me.
“Strange Adventures” by Paul Pope features Adam Strange in a manner totally different. I don’t think Alanna has ever shown so much skin, she looks practically like a South American princess. Pope uses the page to good effect using a symmetrical page layout with tall vertical panels at the side, to contrast the threat descending while Adam Strange ascends into combat. It’s dinstinctively Paul Pope.
“Supergirl” by Jimmy Palmiotti and Amanda Connor is the closest that we get to a humor strip. Streaky the supercat is being chased by Krypto and Supergirl has to round them up before they get into too much trouble. Nicely drawn, but slight and the punch line isn’t that great.
“Metal Men” is by Dan Didio, Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez, and Kevin Nowlan is also fairly light. The Metal Men, in disguise, are on a field trip to observe how humans behave. At a bank. That’s being robbed. And they certainly aren’t going to sit on the sidelines, despite orders to stay out of it. The art is very well done from the recent BATMAN CONFIDENTIAL team and the script is solid from DC’s main editor.
“Wonder Woman” by Ben Caldwell surpasses Paul Pope in being the most non-traditional take on a character. Most of the artists are relatively frugal with panels, rarely going over 15 or so, but Ben Caldwell must have close to 60 panels on his page. Diana, on the eve of going to Man’s World, has a prophetic dream where she’s visited and warned by three oracles. I don’t think it’s a total success, but it’s certainly one of the most ambitious pages and certainly has the most story.
“SGT. Rock and Easy Company” is written by Adam Kubert and drawn by the legendary Joe Kubert. Rock’s been captured by the Nazis and being tortured to get the further information. There are only 9 panels of story here, but Joe Kubert makes certain that the blows delivered to Rock pack a wallop.
"Flash Comics” by Karl Kerschl is actually two strips, “Flash,” a straight ahead superhero feature as Barry Allen battles Gorilla Grodd, and “Iris West,” an old fashioned romance comic strip. Both are lovingly drawn, although in the midst of all of the other superhero features I though the romance strip really stood out.
“The Demon and Catwoman” is written by Walt Simonson and drawn by Brian Stelfreeze and takes advantage of the page by having two things going on. Selena Kyle flirts with Jason Blood while simultaneously casing his place for a robbery. Obviously things are going to turn out a lot more complicated than she thinks. They really are aiming for an old fashioned femme fatale role for Selena here.
“Hawkman” by Kyle Baker rounds out the features. And, surprisingly, the biggest hero image of the book belongs to Hawkman as Baker takes five panels to set up his situation, Hawkman sending a bunch of birds to deal with a skyjacking. Hard hitting adventure is promised by this feature.
As a piece of pop art, WEDNESDAY COMICS is nearly flawless. Big art drawn by a talented group of artists with many different styles. However, there are some narrative bumps still to be ironed out and you essentially have 15 pages of initial setups and cliffhangers and there’s only so much differentiation you can make at this point. Perhaps too many story beats are the same in this first installment. It certainly wouldn’t have hurt if some of the features were one page humor strips instead of continuing serials. But there’s lots of talent here, it’s easy for a newcomer to pick up, and like nothing else on the stands. The best way to approach it is from an “art first” perspective
