Stormwatch #3

And it's time for month #3 of the DCnU. It's amusing to me that three months in, I can't even really decide if I'm enjoying most of the new books or not. Some are hits, some are not, and some are in the middle. Stormwatch is definitely a title I was really excited about, but now that it has arrived, it is only OK.

My biggest problem is this: can my affection for the Martian Manhunter make me pick up a book I probably wouldn't buy otherwise? Paul Cornell does a good job with J'onn; he's powerful and smart, and actually should be in the hunt to lead the team. But there are a whole lot of pages dedicated to the rest of this pretty large cast, and not many of them strike my fancy. As long as Midnighter is rocking that ridiculous spike-beard, I can't take him seriously. T-shirt-wearing Apollo feels too much like Action Comics Superman. I like Harry Tanner, but only if he's going to be a villain (that sure seems to be the way he's acting). Hawksmoor, Jenny Quantum and the rest are suffering the same as J'onn, sort of shunted to smaller appearances. (I did find the whole idea of city-avatars intriguing. That's certainly new!)

So three issues in, I'm more excited to read this comic hoping for more Manhunter pages that I probably just need to admit won't be coming. It's not a bad comic, but it's not what I hoped for, either.

Miguel Sepulveda's art is starting to look more and more photo-referenced. There were numerous backgrounds in this one that looked like they were drawn over a digital picture to give the panels background. It's not bad, but again, not exactly my style.

Average