Week In Review : Before Watchmen Dollar Bill + Green Lantern Corps Annual #1 + Injustice #1

We’ve got a bunch of new titles being reviewed today, a very DC-heavy lineup. Be you a fan of Watchmen, the Green Lanterns or the DCU in general, it’s all covered today.

 

Before Watchmen Dollar Bill one-shot (DC)

Story: Len Wein

Art: Steve Rude

(Reviewed by Akshay Dhar)

Possibly one of the more surprisingly pleasant reads in a bit. I was expecting this to be yet another bland addition to the list of over-blown and sub-standard titles that has been Before Watchmen, but this turned out to have some real teeth to it – something for which I fully credit writer Len Wein.

It’s a done-in-one story and one that I think might actually be an interesting and worthy addition to the Watchmen universe

Our hero is Bill Brady, a young, handsome footballer with a bright future who gets injured early in his career. Life hits him with some hard-knocks and approaching the end of his rope he gets a chance to cash in on his good looks and the ongoing “masked men” craze as a spokesman for a bank chain.

I don’t know about you, but that did for a moment make me think of Duff-Man. Oh yeah!

Ahem… anyway, you’ve now got the basic story and I don’t want to spoil it since this issue is the whole tale – suffice to say that the mood and behaviour of people, the character arc and development of Bill Brady as well as his alter ego, Dollar Bill, and the progression of the story was very nicely handled. It felt real and well thought out. Short and intense and with moments and ideas that can be related to things in reality – like an actor who is type-cast because of a famous role – and such bring a nice feel to the whole thing and make it a nice read start to the suitable finish.

Accompanied by some good artwork by Steve Rude, the book looks good too. The designs are nicely done for the period setting the story takes place in and the colouring also felt right for the story we were reading – visually it made me want to go back and watch the old Fleischer studio Superman shorts.

Not the greatest book and not Len’s finest work, but for what it is, he does a fine job that lives up to his reputation from his earlier works. I’d recommend reading it simply either for that or if you are a Watchmen fan and just want at least one good story from this otherwise pretty terrible cashing in on the original.

SCORE : 6 / 10

 

Green Lantern Corps Annual #1 (DC)

Story: Peter Tomasi

Art: ChrisCross

(Reviewed by Vikram Bhargava)

This annual serves as a major crossover issue for most the characters in the different ongoing Green Lantern titles. This is the last issue of the ‘Rise of the Third army’ story arc, leading directly into a new arc called ‘Wrath of the First Lantern’.

The Guardians have laid a trap for all the Green Lanterns, by calling them to Oa. Guy Gardener – minus his ring – embarks on a suicide mission coming to Oa to warn the other Green Lanterns. The squirrel Lantern B’dg and Baz meanwhile encounter Black Hand. Gardener travels to Oa and creates a diversion, by distracting the Guardians, so that Kilowog and the other Lanterns can recharge and warn the others. The Guardians call the entire Third Army to Oa and are just about to lobotomize Gardner. Bam! Enter Kyle Rayner and the New Guardians. They totally begin to kick the Guardians’ asses, and that’s when the First Lantern – Volthoom – breaks free.

Damn! Now, we don’t know much about this Volthoom guy, but he sounds scary to me. And, ‘Wrath of the First Lantern’, seems pretty ominous.

What happens now that Volthoom has broken free? He’s mightily pissed at the Guardians for keeping him trapped for so long. What does this mean for the Green Lanterns? These are the questions this issue raises. And what about Baz who’s encountering Black Hand for the first time? This is a really decent story arc, and I expect the next one to be equally good. Personally, I rate this above the also ongoing ‘Death of the Family’ and ‘H’El on Earth’ story-arcs.

SCORE : 9 / 10

 

Injustice #1 (DC)

Story: Tom Taylor

Art: Jheremy Raapack

(Reviewed by Anant Sagar)

While the video game by NetherRealm studios isn’t out yet, the comics provide a decent insight into why the heroes are trying to kill each other as we’ve seen in the trailers.

Superman is the centre of attention in this issue and has news to share with Batman.

While I eagerly awaited the game, I wasn’t sure what DC would do with the tie in comics (which we all knew were coming the moment we heard about the game.) Keeping a low expectation level, I went ahead with reading this and must say I quite enjoyed it. It opens slowly and picks up as it goes along. The plot was clear and well written. It didn’t drag itself like you may expect with a video game tie-in.

The art reminds me a bit of the tie in art from Arkham City video game tie-ins, which is a good thing. Although I must confess I didn’t really read all of those issues.

My only problem with this issue is that it was too short, and leaves me waiting to read more.

It’s definitely worth checking out if you are looking forward to the game. And if you’re not a big gamer, it’s still worth a read.

SCORE : 7.5 / 10