Dv8: Gods and Monsters #1

“The Day I Tried to Live” (No Spoilers)
Wow! This is a really deep comic. Brian Wood has taken these characters that were once simply the “evil Gen 13”, and presented what is almost a psychological study of them. When Warren Ellis took these characters into their own series, his interest in the characters seemed to be that they were screwed up individuals and he wanted to explore that. As much as I usually like Ellis’ work, I didn’t think his Dv8 run was that great. Although he did tell some stories with these characters that were pretty messed up, ultimately I don’t think it really got into each of the team members like Wood does here.

Gen 13 #35

“Pocatello: Part 1 – Pathcutter” (No Spoilers)
Finally, we get a good jumping on point with the Gen 13 kids. Originally, issue 33 was supposed to be writer Phil Hester’s first but the story running through Wildcats and The Authority required writer Adam Beechen to take Gen 13 for issues 33 & 34 before we could get here. I can see why this was done but it has been hard to sell Gen 13 with a good jumping on point because of this. Thankfully, they finally accomplish that here.

The Authority #21

“Adrift” (No Spoilers)
The creative team consisting of writers Marc Bernardin & Adam Freeman along with artist Al Barrionuevo bow out of their Authority run with this issue. No official reason has been given but regardless of the reason, I am saddened by their departure. Their run has been really strong and after four solid issues, I hate to see them go. But the good news is they leave us with a really good issue.
Someone asked me to give a summary of what I thought of both this title and the current Wildcats title. I told them Wildcats right now was very much like a Michael Bay movie while The Authority is reminding me a lot of the new Battlestar Galactica series. And I’m enjoying each title based on that comparison.

Wildcats #21

“Red Blade 3 of 3: Red Reign” (No Spoilers)
Wow! Wow! Wow! Wow! What an amazing finish to this crazy high-speed car chase on crack of a storyline that Adam Beechen and Tim Seeley have kicked off their run with! These guys took the phrase “hit the ground running” to the nth degree with this one. This was a crazy superhero war! This is the kind of carnage that would be wrought if super-powered beings really got into it.
When I saw that their first arc was only going to be 3-issues I was a little concerned because I thought that was too short for an arc. Especially considering the kind of the story they were going to tell.