It has been so long since I’ve written anything about comic books, I even considered retiring the category or having it rolled in with the Books part which was recently languishing. I still read ’em, it’s the part involving a post I kept falling down on the job with these last couple years. Miniseries or one-shots are usually the easiest to tackle. Sadly, my current subs to ongoing titles are sucking. I blame DC’s craziness with crossovers and yet another universe-changing Crisis.
This kick off to DC’s pulp revival was an interesting attempt but rumor has it the whole line may be cancelled later this year. I’ll cover what this one was about anyway because the concept did pique my interest.
About five years after the War ends, a young Bruce Wayne begins his new career as Batman to combat corruption in Gotham City. Unlike the traditional Batman of the last last 70 years, this one uses guns like Bob Kane had him originally doing. Anyway, Batman; the Spirit; Justice, Inc. and the Blackhawks get pulled into a larger story involving Doc Savage Jr. investigating how his father (Sr.) died and the secretive Golden Tree organization. Things start off pretty interestingly but by the last issue, it ends rather abruptly. First Wave is no New Frontier which has become the gold standard of retrofitting DC’s iconic characters.
The artwork and dialog are first rate. I only have two bones to pick. Doc Savage and the guy from Justice, Inc. looked too similar so I got a little confused at a couple points. The other one involved a lack of consistency with technology. What year is it supposed to be? Which war ended recently? The clothes, buildings and slang are from the Thirties to Forties while the Blackhawks fly aircraft from at least the Seventies, reporters have handheld recorders and the Golden Tree is trying to retrieve data burned to a CD-R/DVD-R/Blu-Ray. Maybe the creative team wants to recapture the look from the Batman cartoon of the Nineties. To me it’s a minor nuisance yet it should be addressed.
It would be a shame if the rumors are true regarding the line’s cancellation. These venerable creations are cornerstones to modern comics but the audience just isn’t large enough for them to be viable in this form. DC should’ve taken the past failures of The Shadow and The Phantom movies from the Nineties as hints.