"Supergirl, Hawkman, and the Blue Beetle saw many birds as they flew from Total Justice headquarters to Mexico. Look up, down, backwards, and diagonally to find some of the birds they saw."
The "Search-A-Bird" crossword puzzle had a bunch of fowl drawings encircling it. You had to find a Caracara, Condor, Eagle, Hawk, Hummingbird, Manakin, Owl, Quetzal, and most importantly, the Osprey and Vulture.
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The latest creative shake-up amidst the DCnÜ effects our character, as Paul Cornell tweets "I'll be staying on Demon Knights and Saucer Country, but 6 is my last issue of Stormwatch. Thanks, everyone. Good luck to Paul Jenkins." He refers to a two-part story across #7-8. I'm upset about this mostly on principle. Cornell kept trying to quiet reader unrest over unlikeable new characters and divergent histories by explaining that he was playing the long game, building to big things. For instance, Apollo finally "first" gets his trademark halo in #4, as can be seen in the Source blog preview. The wait was so that Midnighter could gently caress Apollo's cheek and blast him with a massive amount of solar radiation. Since he was already a "Superman class" being, this seems like Mario punching a brick to get a growing mushroom than a valid character moment worth the wait. Also, DC Comics has a pathological fear of shipping Stormwatch with a solicited cover and Miguel Sepulveda subscribes to an obscure religion that forbids the drawing of naked toes. Where Firestorm Fan had advance warning that a co-writer and friend of the blog would be leaving, it can take solace from a solid replacement, a two-parter drawn by Ethan Van Sciver, and an ongoing relationship with the remaining creators. Paul Cornell never did this blog any favors, and I honestly feel like he wasted my time with this busy but insubstantial arc, so I won't miss him. I'm still excited about the potential of the series, and hope whoever takes writing the book on permanently can better realize it.
Shake-ups like this just make me worry if the book is going to be cancelled. Besides the 70's JLA retro one-shot (which was pretty good), Stormwatch was the only ongoing book I'm buying.
ReplyDeleteWere the sales numbers of SW decent?
I have hopes for the title, but some parts of this first arc left me a bit cold. I do not like spikes on Midnighter's armor and J'Onn seems to be a bit of a background character at times. (Okay, he does get people out of the way of the monster from the Moon, but I think that the characters could do more in this book -- and be better defined.)
ReplyDeleteMaybe instead of powering up Apollo, they could have just have him come in after exposure to unfiltered sunlight -- at peak power.
My hope is that Stormwatch will live up to its potential of being a great book that will highlight its characters and make them a prominent part of the DCnU. I just hope that there is a great writer and a great artist in the wings.
Frank, I linked to this blog on CBR. I think that there has been some good in the story arc, but there were some confusing aspects and some things that I did not care for in the run. So, here's to the future.
ReplyDeleteLiss, Stormwatch #2 ranked 29 out of the New 52
ReplyDelete(and change) for the month. It was the 44th bestselling book overall at approximately 47,520 copies. Not too shabby, and far too good to be in any peril.
Will, I'm not as worried about the amount of J'Onn's exposure or the details of a given character than the simple truth that I do not care very much about anything in the book. Nice enough art, solid enough dialogue, no emotional investment or strong interest in anything that's happened so far. It's a book that just "there."
Thanks for the link!
Re: your last comment, Agreed. My enjoyment of the book has been almost completely powered by my previous care for the characters. Sad.
ReplyDeleteIf I did not like the characters (particularly J'Onn), I am not sure that I would have kept following the book. If I did not have a chance to learn a bit about Stormwatch from this site and a few other places, I would probably not know too much about the characters. Most of my knowledge of who characters like Jenny Quantum, the Engineer, Apollo and Midnighter are comes from what existed before Cornell wrote a word of Stormwatch. (Some of the current team members seem to be headed out the door at the end of Cornell's run.)
ReplyDeleteLet's hope that someone will do a great job with the title.
I want to get back the Ellis Stormwatch and Authority next year, but I felt like doing anything with that this month would crowd out poor J'Onn J'Onzz completely. The same goes for the Paul Kirk Manhunter. December of Despero has been a welcome breather as I jump through the extraordinary hoops of getting a new job, much less my upcoming trial by fire of actually doing it as a total rookie. Thank God for coloring books and easily edited-in links...
ReplyDeleteI've read the issue now, and J'onn is an afterthought personality wise. For a book so dependent on previous properties, it sure does ignore characterizations with impressive aplomb.
ReplyDeleteMy comic supplier switched back to shipping the last week of the month instead of the first, so I've got about a month to go for mine.
ReplyDelete