FIRST WAVE #3 goes a long ways towards justifying the presence of The Bat-Man in a mini-series where he’s been conspicuously absent so far, while also keeping the story moving forward. Also welcome in the third installment is an explanation of just what the “Golden Tree” is as an organization. And, while doing so,
FIRST WAVE is delivering action, humor, intrigue, and cliffhangers. It’s living up to its concept of a pulp universe.
There’s been much controversy about Batman’s use of guns as a concept in this series, and I don’t think writer Brian Azzarello really addresses it in the course of this issue. At least to anyone’s satisfaction. So far, I don’t think there’s any real need or justification for the guns except for the idea that Batman is standing in for The Shadow. Perhaps that would be enough, but otherwise Batman is quite faithful to his classic interpretation and the guns don’t really add much that couldn’t have been accomplished with some Batarangs.
The Avenger gets to show his stuff as well this issue and he and Batman have a miniature version of a team-up in the course of the issue. Fun stuff.
And the Doc Savage, Spirit, Blackhawks arc takes a few turns. It looks like the Blackhawks don’t like being played for patsies.
By the end of the issue, all storylines seem to be closing in on Anton Colossi in Hidalgo. It’s to Azzarello’s credit that after a scattered start, he’s quickly pulled the various threads together and the story reads like a story, not an unstructured gimmick which makes due with guest appearances instead of plot and structure.
And, as always, Rags Morales is just knocking the art out of the park. There’s a real diversity of character, setting, and tone with action, mystery, and humor all taking their turns and Morales is up for all of that. Probably the standout sequence is when Azzarello turns over the chore of demonstrating The Avengers ability to mold the features of his face to Morales’s art alone. And Morales is able to convey that without any narration helping him along.
FIRST WAVE is humming along as a story and seems to be more than justifying that acquisition of characters for DC Comics. And it works that it’s not tied into the regular DCU. We’ll see if anything more comes of FIRST WAVE in the aftermath of the mini-series, but it’s living up to the promise of the concept so far.
