Saturday, March 13, 2010

First Wave #1

Wow, this was really good. I don't know much of anything about Doc Savage and I never really warmed up to the recent Spirit series, so the fact that I'm so interested in those characters here is a good sign. Brian Azzarello makes this first issue very new-reader friendly. The whole feel of the issue is a lot of fun. There's jungle action as a guy flees through the jungle. There's a cool lineup of tough characters with Doc Savage and his crew. And the Spirit has a great relationship with the crooked (but still good) Commissioner Nolan. I'm really interested to see how these relationships pay off, and while I'm not clear on the bad guys' plans, there is definitely a nice connection running through the plots. At first glance, I'm really loving this take on the Spirit as a kind of screw-up vigilante. He sleeps in graves, wears a broken watch, and shows up late to his own stakeout. That's a neat take that I can get into. Very cool.

Rags Morales' art is stunning. The characters ooze personality and you can get a read on each figure based on facial expression and body language. The tone is set perfectly with the coloring and architecture in each scene. This book absolutely nails the pulp tone the solicits promised. I'm going to wait for trade for the rest of this, but I'm really looking forward to the next installment.

Good

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