Honorable Mentions, New 52 Zero Omnibus Review Part 2

New 52 Zero Omnibus Review Honorable Mentions

(A continuation of our look into the new 52)

(Click for part 1)

Aquaman, Underwater, by Geoff Johns (writer) and Ivan Reis (artist)

For some reason it’s hard for me to get invested in Geoff’s work, which is painful since he does so much for DC. In my opinion he can be great at making characters accessible to readers and creating a detailed character history, but it can come off as redundant or end weak. He seems to of found something here with Ivan Reis that really speaks to me and makes me want to pick up the collected trades. They start us off in a hospital where after an attack by the Black Manta, Arthur’s dad is injured and confesses to his son that he must return to Atlantis and find his Mother. Ivan does a beautiful job drawing his journey from the land to depths, in this surprisingly great story about a man trying to find his home.

Green Lantern New Guardians, Love & Death, by Tony Bedard (writer) and Aaron Kuder, Andrei Bressan (artists)

I really enjoyed rereading this issue not only for the story but for some really amazing rendered art. Lanterns of different colors, intrigue and deception abound, awesome battle scenes, and zombies!  I am not familiar with any of the people involved in the publication although that will not be for long. I’ve always loved the Green Lantern but have had a hard time getting the comics to read. With so much history and different generations of ring bearers and corps it’s difficult to get a starting point. Even reading this there is a lot of back history concerning Hal and Sinestro that I am left completely in the dark.  What made me put this on this list though are the artists, who just killed it with these pages showcasing a battle between 2 lanterns and a horde of zombies. You also get some setup for a future battle where all 7 powers must be combined. Goosebumps.

Red Lanterns, Atrocitus the Second Prophecy, by Peter Milligan (writer) and Ardian Syaf, Vicente Cifuentes (artists)

It is always refreshing when you break out of your mold. I’m not a real big person on horror, or taboo but Peter does it justice. If you are not familiar with his work, among his many achievements he created Azrael during the Batman Knightfall story line. We get a dark story that starts with Atros on the planet Ryutt long ago, who after a horrific slaughter from the Manhunters becomes the only survivor, having watched his family and whole species demolished. After coming across “Demons” from the Cancer universe 666, they set off on a war with the Guardians of the Universe. That’s a mouthful by itself. The art was very decent and detailed but it’s Milligan that wins this round.

Demon Knights, the Prologue, by Paul Cornell (writer) and Bernard Chang, Marcelo Maiolo (artists)

Freaking Beautiful. Second, I love Etrigan. Created by the legend Jack Kirby in 1972, this character actually has a funny but sad story. He didn’t want to do a horror comics but the demand from DC was there so he created Etrigan, who sold so well he had to drop Forth World before he was done with them. In this modern take he does not appear in Gotham at all and instead we get this wondrous tale of Lucifer, Merlin, Morgaine le Fey, Etrigan, and the unlucky Jason of Norwich who ties it all together. Great artwork to compliment but I did find out it changes for the series, which unfortunately only ran for 23 issues and is collected in 3 volumes. Cool Side Note, Demon Knights is the ancestral origin of StormWatch.

Beowulf, The Perfect Soldier, by Tony Bedard (writer) and Jesus Saiz, Brian Reber (artists)

Way to go Tony, you Sir know how to create and detail some amazing tales and you made it on here twice! Here we get the age old epic of Beowulf, in a new 52 spin. He appears to be some sort of mutant? Or maybe an experiment? It’s all setup very well, and leaves you wanting to read more. Sadly it only ran for 8 issues and was it a secondary title to Sword of Sorcery title, whose main character was Amethyst and not tied to this at all. They were both very decent fantasy titles and it was very unfortunate that they did not get the chance to develop further. Very much like other fantasy/horror titles that I have been writing about (I Vampire, Demon Knights) it is hard for them to attract the numbers they need to continue, where as other more mainstream titles or easier to relate characters can continue near indefinitely. 

Author Douglas Dixon is a Texas native, now Washington state transplant. He lives and breathes comics. Don't look now, but someone made a comic about your life, and we can't put it down...