Last week I looked at the first wave of DC Comics Rebirth titles as they seek to semi-reboot their comic book universe. And after a split on the books, this week bring us 3 titles to look at.
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Wonder Woman: Rebirth, written by Greg Rucka and art by Liam Sharp and Paulo Siquiera. In full disclosure, this book got an automatic subscribe from me from when it was very first announced, because Greg Rucka is one of my favorite current comic writers, in particular with female characters.
This book sets the table and deals with one of the major issues of writing Wonder Woman: there are so many different and convoluted origins stories. The approach in this book is unique and has some promise moving forward. The art was solid but having two different artists, it was distracting but not enough to get me off the title, which will be a unique every other week format telling two different stories.
The Flash: Rebirth served almost as a continuation of the main DC Rebirth book that started this. Barry Allen and Wally West are clearly going to be the main focus of this relaunch but there are some very different ideas that are approached in this book.
Most notably, that the Flash and Batman would be detectives together; the Science Bros. approach is new to me at least with these two characters and creates a good dynamic that could further this story towards an eventual resolution. This one was written by Joshua Williamson and art was by Carmine Di Giandomenico. It was a great first issue that did the hard part of building on the great Geoff Johns story.
Lastly, this week saw the Aquaman: Rebirth story, which I must say has a ton of promise that is never lived into in this issue. The story of Aquaman is quickly recounted, as the son of a human dad and an Atlantean mother.
There is some discussion of everything Atlantean and it sets up an interesting dynamic moving forward: Aquaman is the king of the ocean, with a vast number of people who want nothing to do with the surface world, with his lady friend Mera possibly on their side, even as Aquaman opens an embassy essentially.
But…this book is a bit stale. You wind up with really uneven art by Oscar Jimenez, as he gives visuals to Dan Abnett’s writing. It was really jarring to me to see such a different looking art style. Reading it on an iPad, it even seemed like the background white color changed from page to page.
This book is definitely one that I may check out in trades, as I have loved Abnett’s work over on the Marvel side. But I hope the art stabilizes moving forward. (And there is one ridiculous costume scene with Aquaman at his local diner.)
Overall, a pretty solid selection of comics this week. You wind up with a story I am going to follow regardless in Wonder Woman, a book that feels the most like it is going to continue the Rebirth story the most, and a book that may wind up being a worthy book to pick up in trades.
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