Red Hood and the Outlaws Annual #1

Once upon a time Roy Harper was Green Arrow's tech guy. Today he's the anti-hero known as Arsenal and Green Arrow is the last person he wants to see. Ollie Queen, though, turns up on the hidden island HQ of Roy, Jason Todd and Princess Koriand'r of Tamaran - aka Red Hood and Starfire - to warn them that there's a massive bounty on their heads.

Which might be useful, had Ollie not unwittingly led one of those very same assassins to them. Cheshire is fast, teleports and has poisons that can down even the alien Starfire. But rather than kill the three Outlaws, she wants to take Jason - supposedly her old training partner - away to join the gang of killers she's with ...

That's the meat of James Tynion IV's script. There's also a massive helping of tackiness, thanks to artist Al Barrionuevo's choices for Cheshire. Lord knows why our heroes can't catch the minx given that she's constantly stopping to show off her bum, boobs and knickers. As well as being insulting and laughable, it's a shame because it distracts from the occasionally excellent work Barrionuevo, coloured by Javier Mena and Bit, does. The way he moves characters around panels, especially when we're in an action scene, is impressive, and his general figurework convinces. It's just the Nineties-style adolescent pandering that distracts.

Mind, at least he doesn't have the Roybots poledancing.

Roybots? They're the super-cute cybernetic lizards, turtles and worms which protect the island from (non-teleporting) intruders. And when they're told a newcomer is OK, said visitor is designated a Royfriend. This kind of playfulness is welcome in a script that's otherwise super-serious, as it details Roy's dark days of heavy drinking, the newly amnesiac Jason's struggle to accept that he's a mass killer, and of-course,a  potentially lethal supervillain slapfest.

I'm less keen on Cheshire's dialogue - with lines like 'you should have told me you made such cute friends' she sounds less like a ruthless killer than a demented ladyboy. And the face make-up Barrionuevo's apparently been asked to draw is horrendous, the woman looks severely bruised throughout. On the plus side, I like that she can now teleport, like a Cheshire cat - it makes her holding her own against a team of superheroes a little more believable.

In flashbacks we see that when he needed psychiatric help, Roy wound up under Dr Hugo Strange, one of the first foes of Batman back in the Golden Age of comics. We don't see the details, but the implication is that he sent Roy away more screwed up than he was when he arrived.

As for Jason, I'm beginning to suspect that his recent mindwipe will prove indefinite, laundering his sins somewhat.

There's no new insight into Kori this issue, though subplots from the regular series, reflecting Roy's problems with trust, continue. She is, though, demonstrably the team's most powerful member.

Having recently joined the book, Tynion is proving an asset, though he really needs to avoid flashbacks within flashbacks, and daft bits of narration such as 'three-hundred forty-nine feet away', which recalls the nuttiness of Legion Lost's 'five blocks south and seventeen east' - there's a reason that book got cancelled.

And while Cheshire's attraction to Roy makes sense as a nod to old continuity, a sly reference to Roy's pre-Flashpoint lost arm would have been better deleted - far too knowing.

What's more, the sooner Tynion either explain's Roy's Linus-like attachment to baseball caps, or writes them out entirely, the better - superhero outfit plus + baseball cap = simple. Roy looks like he should be sporting a couple of beer cans on either side.

Where Tynion is strongest is in showing the friendship between the characters - the love Kori and Roy have for one another and Jason is constantly to the fore. Jason is unable to join the love fest at the moment, but I'm sure he'll be grudgingly adoring his partners again soon.

The cover, by artist Ken Lashley and colourist Matt Yackey, is a decent spin on a classic comic book idea - visually, but not earth, shattering.

As specials go, like this week's Earth 2 giant, Red Hood and the Outlaws Annual #1 is more a double issue than a discrete event. If you're not already reading the series, dipping into this might prove less than satisfactory. But regular readers will likely enjoy the deepening of characters, the progression of the storyline and the introduction of a new villain - it's just a shame Cheshire's been made into cheesecake.

Earth 2 Annual #1 review

The big selling point for this issue is the debut of an all-new Batman, the original Earth 2 fellow having died at the start of the regular series. As a JSA traditionalist, I don't really think the team needs a Superman, Batman or Wonder Woman, but it seems DC begs to differ. And given that the heroes who have been banding together over the last year and a half's worth of issues don't yet call themselves the Justice Society, I lose on a technicality.

So how is he? So far, so un-Batman. Sure, he has Bruce Wayne's square jaw, and a costume similar to the classic, but he swings around shooting people. OK, it's not with a gun gun, he brandishes a wrist-mounted device firing explosive pellets (each with a bat insignia, obviously), but the visual still makes me a tad uncomfortable - where are the batarangs, as seen on the cover? We do learn what drives him, and it's something that puts him firmly in the JSA-to-be's wheelhouse. And he fights a bad guy who's a mix of one of Bronze Age Batman's enemies, and an old JSA foe or two, which works for me.

There isn't actually that much Batman inside - he appears on something like 8 out of 38 pages - with the rest of the book focussing mainly on the Atom's origin, and his latest World Army mission. He's hunting a criminal named Henri Roy in  in Phnom Penh, a city teeming with thugs enhanced by prosthetics left over from the Apokolips war. On the way to the area, Al Pratt recalls the aftermath of the nuclear explosion that killed his fellow soldiers and left him unharmed. Since then he's been growing to giant size, and manifesting explosive fists, but the psychiatrist assigned him in the months after the incident is fixated on one question - why do his clothes grow with him?

If the shrink were a comic book reader, she'd be thinking 'localised energy field', but she obviously isn't; I wonder if she suspects Al had his abilities prior to the explosion, and simply didn't display them, that he's had super powers long enough to gain control over even his clothing ..

Elsewhere this issue we meet Captain Steel as he's given a mission to the freakish firepits that pok the world. He's a Heywood, as in the old continuity, but Filipino, and his super-power seems to be the ability to smoulder. We see the WA crank up efforts to put together a team of tame heroes as more and more 'Wonders' appear around the globe. And after their cameo in the regular title a month or two back, we're properly introduced to Big Barda and Mr Miracle, Apokolips refugees turned Earth heroes, and learn just what they're doing in dinosaur-infested Gotham.

Writer James Robinson turns in one of his most satisfying scripts, with plenty of world and character building, and a marked upswing in the quality of his dialogue. He puts some meat on the bones of the Atom's previously one-note character, and freshens up the traditional Barda/Mr Miracle coupling. All of which is rather bittersweet now we know he's leaving the Earth 2 series soon. I do worry that without Robinson's vision, this terrific series will very soon descend into the mediocre. Prove me wrong, DC!

A question that's not answered here is, who is the superhero? As the new Batman uses the very un-Batman like contraction 'gotta', I'm betting someone younger than traditional Bruce Wayne, someone more street - wouldn't it be something if the new Earth 2 Ted Grant isn't Wildcat, but Batman II?

Several artists bring Robinson's scripts to life, Cafu (pencilling and inking) and Julius Gopez (inked by Cam Smith). Their clean, dynamic styles meld so well - aided by the colours of the bloomin' marvellous Pete Pantazis - that I couldn't tell you who did what, but there isn't a duff page in the pack. While the new Batman certainly has impact, my favourite bit of visual business sees the Atom follow Henri Roy from panel to panel across a double page spread (sadly, I can only reprint it with a gap ... I need a bigger scanner!). You see the Atom straining to catch Roy, pounding buildings and straddling panel borders - it's a fine piece of composition. I think it's the work of Cafu/Gopez, but it could easily be the work of Gopez/Cafu. I can tell you the letters are by Carlos M Mangual, if that helps.

And I love the dramatic posturing of Batman on the cover, the work of Andy Kubert. And the chiaroscuro colours of Brad Anderson.

While some comic book annuals are standalone issues, this is basically two issues of the regular Earth 2 series squished together. But it's excellent stuff, and I can't see any fan of the book regretting a purchase.

X-Men #1 review

As Gypsy Rose Lee learned, you gotta have a gimmick. And when Marvel Comics is relaunching an X-Men book it helps to have something to distinguish the title from the rest of the mutant pack.

What's that, you say? How about stories with a unique tone, tales that don't depend on crossovers to be 'worthwhile', a stonkingly good story and rip-roaringly fine art?

Happily, this new X-Men book already has the latter two requirements, and as for the former pair, hopefully that will prove the case. Meanwhile, there's the gimmick. Or as writer Brian Wood would likely prefer, the Unique Selling Point.

The USP of this X-title is that it focuses on women only. We've never had a men-only mutant book, and the X-Men line has for years balanced male and female members rather well. But someone at Marvel decided that an all-girl gathering is the way to go, so here it is.

And really, one of the main things that makes a good comic book good is character, and the members in this debut issue all have strong voices. It doesn't matter if they're all men, all women, or a mixture, so long as we get friendship and fireworks. There are veterans Storm and Kitty Pryde. Bad girl turned stalwart Rogue. Cool and collected Rachel Summers. Tough toff Psylocke. And whatever-you-call-a-Valley-Girl-in-the-21st-century Jubilee. None of these women need their powers to define them, but let there be no doubt, as mutants go, this is a formidable bunch, with weather control, psi abilities, phasing and more at their disposal.

Wood, wisely, doesn't make a big deal of the spotlight shining on the women. They just happen to be the X-Men around the Jean Grey school this issue. They're not all there at the beginning, as Jubilee returns from a trip to Europe accompanied by one person she wants to be there, and someone she decidedly does not. She's picked up an orphan child on her travels, her mothering instinct having kicked in - or perhaps it's hanging around with waif-wrangler Wolverine for so long. And following her is an old enemy of the X-Men, but here he asks for help. For while he's a menace, there's someone even he's scared of in the picture.

Wood's script is uniformly excellent, giving us a sharp third person narration that introduces the X-Men and their world for any new readers. It's professionalism with style, and I wish more comic book writers were so considerate of the readership. He's equally adept at writing the heroes, as individuals and as members of the school faculty. And his handling of teamwork is a joy, as Rogue, Storm and Kitty stop a runaway train from killing its passengers. Plus, Wood gives us a subplot involving what's bound to be more than simple teenage rivalry. As he says in the lettercol, this is his highest profile launch to date, and on this showing he's well up to it.

Artist Olivier Coipel has had many a high-profile Marvel job, and he gets better every time out. He draws the X-Men as individuals, without pandering to the cheesecake market - if anyone has to bend, or squat, there's a ruddy good reason, and it's not presented with prurience; heck, I've rarely seen a bunch of super-beings so covered up, and it makes a great change.

The big action sequence with the train has the necessary impact without taking over huge spreads, and the tension in Jubilee as she feels hunted is palpable (click on image to enlarge). Were I editing, I'd have given a note that superheroes swooping down to grab a pal off a train might not want to dress up as superheroes, but I don't care too much - this is a debut issue and it's good to see the cast in their 'workwear'. Coipel inks himself, alongside the talented Mark Morales.

Colouring the book, Laura Martin makes a natural palette exciting, while Joe Caramagna's letters are sharp, and know where the emphasis is needed. Coipel and Martin also provide the cover, which so far as capturing the characters of a group of people via body language and expressions go, is masterful.

Overall, some great work from the core creatives - overseen by editors Jennifer M Smith and Jeanine Schaefer - makes for a thoroughly enjoyable first of a three-parter. There's a lot respect here: for the characters, and for the readers, and that's something I can respect.

And as this issue shows, even if you gotta have a gimmick, you don't gotta run it into the ground.