Stormwatch #3:
What Happened: While Apollo deals with the chunks of rock the moon launched at the Earth, the rest of Stormwatch head to the site where one of the moon rocks landed and a giant monster emerged from said moon rock. The team follows Adam's plans and try to attack the moon monster, while Midnighter tells Adam to call for an immediate retreat since the moon monster was absorbing everything thrown at it. Adam is too indecisive as a leader and this issues ends with the moon monster absorbing all but Midnighter, leaving him alone to face the moon monster which now possessed the powers of the rest of Stormwatch.
The Good: This one was action packed from start to finish, with no slowdown whatsoever. Apollo was shown to be Superman-level strong, which is always a plus. Midnighter was shown to have a keen mind for strategy, which is always a plus. We learned a bit more about Jack Hawksmoor and his power, which is always a... All right, I'll give it a rest... The cliffhanger has me interested in seeing what happens next issue with Midnighter(and possibly Apollo) forced to combat the enormous moon monster.
The Bad: We still haven't REALLY been introduced to these characters in a proper way. I mean I know the basics about some of them(Jack Hawksmoor, Jenny Q, Engineer), while I know others better(Apollo, Midnighter, Martian Manhunter), but there are still some characters(Projectionist, that Adam guy, Mystery Swordsman #1) I know next to nothing about... After three issues I'd have hoped we'd have gotten some better characterization work done here...
The Verdict: I thought this was a really good issue. Sure, I'd like to know more about the individual Stormwatch members, but I'll have to assume that's in the cards sometime soon... Hopefully. So while the story and characterizations are coming along slowly, the action is keeping me invested in this series. Bottom line? This series successfully passed it's three month test, meaning it's permanently on my pull list.
Score: 9 out of 10.
Yep, three issues in and it's already painfully obvious who the leader of this squad should be.
Ok I already told you that really like this issue.
ReplyDeleteThere was a lot of action and the fact that next issue could be Apollo/mindnighter centered is alway a good thing ; )
Now, I know that is kind of lame, to noticed more stuff from an interview than the comics itself,
But here is Paul Cornel explaining some details.
For example why that Adam guy is so annoying.
http://www.newsarama.com/comics/cornell-dcnu-stormwatch-november-111101.html
Hey
ReplyDeletea little of fun with Buckys "no-death"
http://www.the-gutters.com/comic/211-jason-brown
ReplyDeleteI am hoping the same thing, Alien. With the rest of the team out of the way, the next issue SHOULD become the Midnighter and Apollo show, which is what I've been waiting for since issue #1.
ReplyDeleteThe weird thing about that interview is that should have been something that was explained more explicitly in the comic...
And thank god Brubaker did indeed have his way! :D
Yeah I re-read the issue after the interview, but couldnt find much of that details, like Adam deaging, or the shadow cabinet (I suspected a little about Harry, the swordsman, behavior)
ReplyDeleteBut i would like thing to be a little more explicit. in the book too, without needing of any research after each issue.
why couldn't DC use the damned first page recap like Marvel does. it would be so helpful.
That was literally the first I can remember hearing of a Shadow Cabinet... I mean maybe I forgot something from one of the first two issues, but yeah, the aging backwards thing as well as the Shadow Cabinet, to my knowledge. haven't been hit on much at all...
ReplyDelete"why couldn't DC use the damned first page recap like Marvel does. it would be so helpful." Alien, mi amigo, I've been saying this for years now! I honestly feel it's way easier to jump into a Marvel comic book than a DC one because of those recap pages. For example, if I suddenly felt like reading Punisher, I could pick up the most recent issue, read the recap and have a pretty good idea of what's been happening there. On the other hand, if I wanted to start reading Green Arrow, I'm competely in the dark... I have no idea what was going on in the first 2-3 issues. If the writer doesn't spell it out during the story, forget it, you're screwed.
Week 1 is a pretty rough week for DC comics. I read Detective and Batwing, and Swamp Thing, but the rest are only if somebody else lets me borrow them. Week 1 has a lot of "probably soon-to-be cancelled books".
ReplyDeleteTo DC's credit they seemed to place their "should be canned soon" books equally throughout the week, Vancelot! :P I know I'm extremely interested to see how well the DC books sold in October, because I can't imagine they would be able to keep up the type of insane sales pace they had going in Sept with their #1's. October's sales, November's sales(by this time DC's sales should have stabilized) and February's sales(the six month mark) will tell the tale as to which books will ultimately get canceled and whether or not the reboot was good for DC...
ReplyDeleteHere are the sales for October
ReplyDeletehttp://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=35298
But I disagre with Vancelot here,
Ok Detective is not going to be cancelled for obvious reasons but is`nt exactly a Good comic.
Same for Action Comics.
And for good comics, if you mention Swamp Thing, you must know that Animal Man is as good as Swampi.
Thanks for the link, Alien! Lots of interesting things from the sales charts... Yes, I LOVE going over numbers! DC seems to have been able to keep up the momentum from September, which I honestly didn't think would happen. Hulk debuting that strongly also surprised the hell out of me... I def didn't expect that. I never would have thought Hulk #1 would outsell Fear Itself #7!
ReplyDeleteThe most interesting thing for me was that most of the DC books stayed in about the same spots from September if you compare the Sept and Oct sales charts side by side... Usually there's a falloff from issue #1 to issue #2(collectors only collect #1's, plus after reading the first issue a fan may decide to drop it), which kind of makes me think that fans are buying a set number of issues(say issues #1-3), which would explain why the chart stayed almost unchanged from last month. Either that or DC hit a HUGE home run and everybody who read the #1 issues loved them so much that they all went and brought the #2 issues as well. But the relative stability for DC's books is REALLY strange for me... With the exception of a few minor changes, Sept and Oct charts were nearly identical. I have no idea what that means...
Exactly Hulk was the surprise here
ReplyDeletethe other surprise was that some number 1 from september hit the top 100.
But you are missing that those charts are about Reatailers orders, and not exactly Comic readers.
Plus a lot of DC books are in the Returnavily program (those with the *)
so that numbers are subjet to change.
The #1 reorders didn't shock me TOO much. I know JL #1 had huge reorder numbers last month(since it came out Aug. 31), so that didn't surprise me too much. But HULK being Marvel's top book, even over Wolvie and the X-Men AND Fear Itself? THAT shocked me!
ReplyDeleteThat's a good point, but usually the retailers will only order as many comics as they feel they'll sell based on what they're hearing from their customers. With the numbers remaining that high, the retailers must feel that they would be selling nearly as many #2's as they did #1's, which boggles my mind. You're not going to order 50 issues of OMAC #2 unless you think you're going to sell nearly that many... I know DC does have some kind of return policy, but I don't know exactly how it works, and if DC pays back the total price... If I have some extra time on Wed maybe I'll pick the brain of the guy at the comic shop I visit to see how DC's returns system works.
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ReplyDeleteI'm happy with Batgirl losing some places Batgirl is at #14 which was down two places and Batwoman up two to #15.
ReplyDeleteAnd maybe the price of fear itself afected that Hulk reached ove it.
But that's the thing, not many books moved dramatically, as you'd expect for an issue #2. Sure, some books moved up or down a few slots, but look at a title like Ultimate X-Men. #1 came in ranked #22 while the second issue came in at 46th place. That's what you'd usually expect to see happen for MOST(but not all) #1 books... The first issue sells high and then the second issue sinks a bit. Usually the second or third issue is a pretty good indicator of where the series will remain on the charts unless something major happens(a creative team change, a major storyline, etc). That's why it's SO weird that the DC books really haven't changed THAT dramatically... Then again, I guess the whole 52 relaunch is so unprecedented, it's hard to compare it to anything that happened in the past or to the trends that usually occur...
ReplyDeleteThat's a strong possibility. I mean $5 is a STEEP price to pay for a comic book... Still, the fact that dollar-wise it only came in forth must have been a bit of a shot to Marvel... You'd think the high price would make up for less copies sold, but that didn't happen here.
Didn't mean to imply that Detective or Action would be cancelled. And yes, I am really enjoying Animal Man as well. I like Batwing as well, but I have a feeling it won't have a long life. I also don't think Men of War, OMAC, Static Shock, or Red Lanters will be permanent fixtures.
ReplyDelete...probably you are right with those books.
ReplyDeleteAnd for Animal Man, number one had a 3 print a few weeks ago, and number two of Swamp Thing had a second print last week. So I hope those two dont get cancelled.
But beign an editorial ruled by Didio and Johns who knows