Friday, January 6, 2012

Stormwatch #5

The first review for this lovely Friday night is going to be the fifth issue of Stormwatch... Five issues... That means the DC reboot is five months in... Huh, it doesn't seem like it... Oh well, let me put my bewilderment aside and get to this comic.

Stormwatch #5:

What Happened: The representative from the Shadow Cabinet kills Adam One(huzzah!) and after looking over all of the other members of Stormwatch, decides that Projectionist was the one who should lead the team. With that, he informs Stormwatch that Midnighter and Apollo had snuck off before leaving. The rest of the Stormwatch members are annoyed by this turn of events(including a surprised Projectionist) and are more annoyed when the alarms go off. Midnighter and Apollo wander around the massive Stormwatch ship and get better acquainted with each other, with Midnighter admitting while he wasn't keen on joining up with Stormwatch, he was interested in working with Apollo. Hearing the alarms, Apollo decides to leave Stormwatch's ship to explore, since him and Midnighter had realized the ship was in Hyperspace. From there Midnighter walks to Stormwatch's data storage room and catches Stormwatch member Harry Tanner stealing files. Midnighter tells Harry that he figured the alarm was a diversion to allow somebody to do something(like steal data files), which leads to Harry attacking Midnighter. The two stalemate each other while Harry tries to convince Midnighter that what he saw on the moon had convinced him that he had to do something to save the Earth from some upcoming threat, even if it meant he had to conquer the planet to properly safeguard it. Projectionist interrupts the fight and is grabbed by Harry, who blows a hole in the ship's wall and sails into Hyperspace with Projectionist. Now away from the ship, Harry sets off a bomb inside which decimates the massive ship.

The Good: Most of this one actually. The story and art came together nicely here. Midnighter distrusting all of Stormwatch while trusting Apollo fits with his prior incarnation, which I like. Midnighter in particular came across as a major player here, and is the obvious choice to lead Stormwatch, whether he wants to or not. The cliffhanger was good. Adam One was out of this book quickly. With Adam One gone, I can't say I dislike any of the characters here. The well joke made me crack up laughing... The Shadow Cabinet member was awesome.

The Bad: This series will be crossing over with Superman in February, meaning I'll have to pick up an issue of Superman... If the Shadow Cabinet representative is strong enough to kill Adam One and hold off the rest of Stormwatch with no trouble, why does the Shadow Cabinet even need Stormwatch?

The Verdict: As you can plainly see, there's WAY more good than bad here. I really did enjoy this comic. As a fan of the Midnighter character prior to the reboot, I was quite pleased to see the way he was portrayed here. So yeah, while I am a bit annoyed that this series is going to be crossing over with Superman(who I have ZERO interest in reading about post-reboot), overall I'm happy with the direction of this series.

Score: 8 1/2 out of 10.HA!!!!!

6 comments:

  1. Have to say I totally agree with you on the leader front, Midnighter would be the clear choice, if only he cared about the team. Although, anyone I think would be better than Projectionist, she just seems so lost, which last issue showed when Midnighter had to talk her through the controls on her own ship.

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  2. Exactly! Projectionist seemed like such an odd choice as a leader here... I guess the problem is that the two characters who SHOULD be the leader(Midnighter or the Martian Manhunter) aren't interested(or even officially on the team yet!). IDK, if not Midnighter or Manhunter, I'd probably have gone with Engineer or even Jack before Projectionist, but that's just me.

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  3. The guys at my LCS have been raving about this series and due to me dropping quite a few series I am thinking about picking the whole run up. I did in fact get a gift card from a relative so... is it worth it!?

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  4. Yes, I would definitely recommend it. I don't know how much you know about the Authority series from Wildstorm prior to the reboot, but many of the characters there are in this one. I was only mildly aware of those characters but that lack of knowledge really hasn't hurt me much. Plus you know I'd be happy to discuss the series with you if you do get it.

    The only bad thing about it is that the writer is leaving this series soon(like SO many other DC titles...), so you never know how the quality will hold up after that...

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  5. Awesome man. I know who the characters are and their stories and what not but never read too much on them. They said the same thing though that its not essential to liking this story. I will probably pick up issue 1 and 2 today or something.

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  6. Cool, if you did pick those comics up, feel free to let me know what ya thought of them, Cap.

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