Here we reach the titles that come under the banner of “The Edge”. I’m not altogether sure what DC mean by that. Edgier books? Perhaps. While a lot of them take risks, I’ve got to be honest and say not many of them appeal. I think this particular corner of the DCU is going to see the most casualties of all the new titles.
Voodoo
One of the new residents of the DCU is Voodoo, fresh from the Wildstorm Universe. It’s hard to tell from the description of the book how much she’s going to be modified to fit into the new DCU, but essentially she’s a half human half alien hybrid with the power of telepathy, shapeshifting and a few others. I’ve got a feeling that this will tie in quite significantly to another new book, Grifter, but DC aren’t really spilling too much about what ground the series is going to cover. That said, she’s certainly a fresh face, if a bit ’90s, and it will be nice to get an outsiders perspective to the new DCU, but is there really enough here to support a book on her own? I’m hopeful but not convinced so far.
Grifter
Way back when, there was a title in Jim Shooter’s now defunct Defiant line called Dark Dominion. It was a solid little book about a man who could look into another dimension overlapping our own and see the demons and monsters possessing us. He was on his own against them. Grifter seems to be quite a similar, if a lot bloodier, take on this idea, but instead of monsters, it’s aliens and he’s branded a serial killer when he starts to take them out. Of all the books in this particular corner of the DC universe, this mixture of Dark Dominion and John Carpenter’s They Live holds the most appeal for me. I want to see this character on the same page as Batman or Green Lantern and try to justify what’s going on. This is one of the new faces I’ll be checking out.
Suicide Squad
We’re back into familiar DC territory with a revamped Suicide Squad book. On the surface, it’s the same as it’s always been: death row b-list villains recruited by the US Government to take on dangerous missions and earn a pardon. But the sexier, more dangerous looking new design for Harley Quinn is turning a few heads. It’s hard to imagine this murderous looking creature as the daffy cartoonesque Quinn of old, and I wonder how indicative of the new book this redesign is going to be. I’m not really the target market for a trampier version of Harley, so the appeal’s somewhat lost on me. What’s more important is that I don’t see much that’s going to be particularly new about this book. I think ultimately I’d prefer to have Secret Six back than this.
Deathstroke
An ongoing book about Slade Wilson, assassin and one the deadliest men in the DCU, doesn’t immediately grab me. The “mayhem and gore” DC are promising can only go so far. He had a terrific role in Identity Crisis when he single-handedly took out the JLA but that highlights the fact that he’s a character who probably works best when we don’t see him all the time. For me, an ongoing is just overkill and ultimately limits what you can do with him.
All-Star Western
Gotham City’s earliest days are explored in this rather off-beat choice for a new title. Jonah Hex brings his own brand of justice to a fledgling Gotham and that’s pretty much all we know at this point aside from some teases of Amadeus Arkham (a pioneer in Criminal Psychology!) and the Religion of Crime, the cult who will eventually cause so many problems for Batwoman. This is probably the best way of packaging Jonah Hex and I certainly don’t doubt the talent involved, but I don’t think this book is going to have the mainstream appeal that will give it staying power.
O.M.A.C.
The Brother Eye satellite has became Batman’s version of Hank Pym’s Ultron robot and since Infinite Crisis, he and his army of cybernetic OMAC cyborgs are a menace that just won’t go away. But once upon a time, the OMAC was a single individual and in this new book, DC have dusted off the old One Man Army Corps concept and attached it to the Brother Eye mythology. He’s now a weapon created by Brother Eye in it’s war against the Checkmate organisation. Now that’s a relatively solid concept, but the major problem for me is that the re-design of the character is incredibly ugly; like a kids version of the Hulk with mohawk that looks even dafter than the original version, and I find it very hard to get past that. Brother Eye was, for me, the least interesting part of Infinite Crisis too, so while I know a few will disagree with me, this isn’t a book that holds any appeal for me.
Blackhawks
The first of the two new military themed books is sadly the least interesting of the two. The old Blackhawk Squadron is revived and reimagined in the new DCU as an elite force of military specialists who use high tech equipment to “kill the bad guys before they kill us”. If that sounds terribly generic, it’s because it is and it’s hard to get excited about it all. I don’t think anyone would be missing much by skipping this book.
Men of War
The grandson of WW2 veteran Sergeant Rock takes command of Easy Company, ex-military men now mercenaries pitted against DC’s super villains. This is the more grounded of the two new military books and my feeling is that it’s better for it. A hard-core military title with super villains could be pretty interesting and the more I look at it, the more I want to see how this book develops and how it’s going to integrate with the rest of the DCU. I want to take a chance with this one.
Next time: Our final preview post checks out the new 52’s Young Justice titles!
Adventures in Comics 