First Wave #1
Written by Brian Azzerello
Art by Rags Morales
Covers by J.G. Jones; Variant by Neal Adams
DC Comics
Price: $3.99; 40 pages
Released date: March 3, 2010

If you read the Doc Savage/Batman special from a few months ago, then you got a sneak peek of what the First Wave miniseries is like (but not much more, that special was pretty slim on story).

The goal of this miniseries is to combine various pulp heroes such as the aforementioned Doc Savage and Batman, as well as The Spirit and the Blackhawks. There are a lot of different characters in First Wave #1, and unfortunately the only one I have much familiarity with, Batman, was not in this issue. That means the whole issue focuses on who Doc Savage and The Spirit are, and that’s where this issue fails. I don’t think I’m alone when I say that I don’t know much about Doc Savage, and unfortunately, I don’t know much more after this issue, and I don’t really care to. I generally enjoy the writing of Brian Azzarello, or at least I enjoyed his writing on 100 Bullets, but there’s just not much to write home about this one. The dialog is fine, if uninspired, but the biggest problem is that I have no connection to these characters and this issue does nothing to foster a connection with them. If you don’t know the characters already, you won’t know them any better after this issue.

Yeah, I’m a little behind again, but one small week and one big week combine together so nicely. Lots of good books over the last few weeks, including a return of a favorite series, and an interesting new series. Here we go…

PULL LIST 08-06 & 08-13-08 Criminal #4 Buffy the Vampire Slayer #17 Final Crisis #3 Invincible Iron Man #4 Ultimate Origins #3 Secret Invasion #5 Secret Invasion: X-men #1 Secret Invasion: Runaways/Young Avengers #2 Batman #679 Chuck #3 Zorro #6 Welcome to Hoxford #1 Atomic Robo: The Dogs of War #1

Criminal #4
Starting out this week, we get one of my favorite series, Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillip‘s Criminal. This issue starts a new arc, dealing with Jacob, who it turns out we met before in one of the previous stories. He’s the creator of a comic strip that has shown up in the book before, but he also has a past as a counterfeiter. His life kind of sucks; he has crippled legs, he suffers from insomnia, he’s very isolated, but all that changes when he’s pulled into a violent exchange. This is a set up issue for the rest of the arc, so there’s not a lot of action here, but Brubaker brings his usual skill to the story. It’s hard to talk about this series when everything is so consistently good. I would like to highlight the coloring by Val Staples in this issue. The use of color in this issue is very effective in showing the characters emotions, and I thought it was really well done. If you’ve been looking for a good time to check out this series, give this issue a shot. If you like good crime drama, this is the book for you. —5 out of 5