Written by Peter J. Tomasi and Patrick Gleason
Art by Doug Mahnke
One of the biggest aspects of Rebirth was that the Superman of the pre-Flashpoint DCU was returning to the forefront while the New 52 Superman was going to die. For those unaware, one of the repercussions of DC's "Convergence" event was the pre-Flashpoint Superman along with his wife Lois and newborn son Jon ending up on the New 52 Prime Earth, living in secret for years, even before the Justice League formed to fight Darkseid. Until this point, their story had been covered in the eight issue run of "Superman: Lois and Clark". Eventually, the two different Supermen would meet, although it would be unfortunately brief due to the New 52 Superman's untimely death.
Putting the pre-Flashpoint Superman back in the focus along with his family was a great move in my opinion. While I didn't start reading Superman until the New 52, most of my experience with the character outside of comics had been based on the classic version, right down to his relationship with Lois. In the New 52, Superman's main romantic relationship was with Wonder Woman. Since part of Rebirth was reestablishing past relationships lost before, having Clark and Lois together again (a version we're already familiar with to boot) was great. Though I did, for the most part, enjoy the New 52's take on the character, something always felt a bit off. The best story to come out of it was Scott Snyder's "Superman Unchained", which as I mentioned in my review of the story that it had been in the works for years even before the New 52, so it makes sense that it still had a classic Superman feel.
When it comes to Superman's Rebirth issue though, it feels more like an epilogue issue to the "Final Days of Superman" storyline, which featured the New 52 Superman's death. This issue deals with pre-Flashpoint Clark and New 52 Lana Lang discussing the aforementioned death, meeting by accident for the same reason: to retrieve New 52 Clark's body. Pre-Flashpoint Clark tells Lana that her Clark may be able to come back from the dead as he had done and we get flashbacks to his fight with Doomsday way back in the 90's. Unfortunately though, what was used to bring back the old Superman isn't available on this Earth to revive the new one. They both accept that New 52 Clark may be gone for good. Something I noticed that I may have overlooked or forgotten about is that New 52's Superman's Fortress of Solitude included a statue of Jonathan and Martha Kent holding up the Earth next to Jor-El and Lara holding up Krypton, which is a nice touch, and by the end, Clark carves New 52 Superman in between the Kents holding up the Earth.
Like I said, this serves as more of an epilogue, but it features a lot of talking, particularly referring to past and important storylines: "The Death and Return of Superman", "Superman: Lois and Clark", and "The Final Days of Superman". To be fair, the issue does a good job at feeling self-contained and referring to those stories without feeling necessary to actually read them. The art by Doug Mahnke is top-notch as always, especially in his recreation of the battle between Superman and Doomsday.
Much like how I felt about Batman Beyond's Rebirth issue, Superman would have benefited from an issue spotlighting pre-Flashpoint Clark's transition from the bearded black suited secret Superman into the new official Superman in a more traditional suit.
Overall, this issue feels more like an ending than a new beginning, but it's still nice to have the old Superman back.
Written by Greg Rucka
Art by Matthew Clark and Liam Sharp
This is the beginning of new territory for me. I've never read a Wonder Woman solo comic in my life, though I am familiar with some aspects of her history. But that's the point of Rebirth, right? To try out things you hadn't before.
This issue focuses on Wonder Woman questioning her past, remembering different versions of her origins. There's the classic version where she was made out of clay and given birth by the Gods, and the more recent New 52 version where she is the biological daughter of Zeus and Hippolyta, Queen of the Amazons. While it's not explicitly stated here, Wonder Woman's existential crisis can probably be rooted to the end of the "Darkseid War" storyline in Justice League where she discovered that she had a twin brother. Her doubts are further founded when she succeeds in crushing the helmet of Ares, which should be impossible. An interesting aspect of the story is that she uses her Lasso of Truth on herself where she discovers that she has "been deceived", but we don't get much more than that. There's a nice touch where in a rage, she smashes a mirror, and in the shards, we see past scenes from not just the New 52, but the pre-Flashpoint DCU as well. She then goes to what she believes to be Olympus, only to be attacked by automatons made by Hephaestus. In the New 52, not only is Diana the daughter of Zeus, but she also became the God of War after besting Ares. Her being attacked, even though she is in all respects "one of [their] own" as she puts it, further confirms deceit has been at hand.
As we know from the proper DC Universe Rebirth one-shot, not only had continuity been altered from Flashpoint, but it had also been manipulated by unseen forces. This is just another example of the old continuity pushing its way through, which raises the question of how powerful this manipulator can be if he can even affect mythological beings as well.
For what's a jumping on point, I feel like it does a good job at presenting the history, or historIES, or Wonder Woman. If you read the classic stories, the New 52, both, or only one of them, you get a sense of who the character is or has been. And if at any point you get confused, then you're right there with Wonder Woman.
If I had to fault this issue for anything, it changes artists for the last third. For the most part it's done by Matthew Clark and then suddenly it's done by Liam Sharp, who would be the main artist for Wonder Woman's solo book following this one shot. It feels a little weird though to have a consistent art style, only to have someone else come on to finish it. However, I will say that there's significance in the change, as Wonder Woman sheds her New 52 costume in lieu of the new Rebirth design (which also resembles Gal Gadot's costume in the DCEU; hooray for synergy!).
Overall, this issue succeeds as an interesting new start for Wonder Woman and makes me excited to pick up the first volume of this series, figure out what the hell's going on with her past, and how it relates to the overall mysteries of Rebirth.
Written by Robert Venditti
Art by Ethan Van Sciver
While I don't regularly follow Green Lantern comics, I've grown to learn much of the lore. That can be attributed to the boost the franchise got in 2011 thanks to the movie and the animated series. Of course, the movie was an overall bomb (though I didn't think it was as bad as many make it out to be), and the animated series, while a critical success, only lasted one season due to the movie's failure and the ridiculous aspect that toy sales were a factor in the series' continuation (that's what also got Young Justice cancelled until recently). In actuality though, it was the Lantern focused "Blackest Night" event in 2009-10 that got me interested in the broader DC universe outside of Batman, and that was before the New 52 reboot. So in some aspect, I owe a lot to Green Lantern.
Geoff Johns had revitalized the Green Lantern franchise starting in 2004, but when he left the book, from what I heard, that specific line of books had taken a dive in quality with endless crossover events. Then in the period between Convergence and Rebirth, trying to figure out DC's continuity became a mess. On the Lantern side of things, the Green Lantern Corps had gone missing after being blamed for acts of atrocity in the universe while Hal Jordan took the blame on himself, becoming a 'renegade' and using an ancient Oan gauntlet, a precursor to the power ring, belonging to Krona, one of the Guardians of the Universe who went bad. Again, I hadn't really kept up on the whole of Green Lantern comics, especially after Johns left, but again, Rebirth was a good time to clean things up.
The issue tells the story on two fronts. Sinestro apparently has control of the planet sized ship of Warworld (which belongs to Mongul) and has traveled to the spot Oa once resided at the center of the universe. I can only assume that like always, Sinestro wants to set up his Corps as the ultimate authority in the universe. An interesting aspect is that Sinestro is using Parallax as the battery to power Warworld.
Meanwhile, Hal Jordan is apparently becoming consumed by Krona's Gauntlet, transformed into a construct and only holding onto himself with his own willpower, constantly reminding himself of who he is (going through his origin story to boot, most likely for the new readers). He also talks about what I did above about how the Corps went missing and he became a renegade. He'll disappear unless he gets rid of the Gauntlet, but he needs it for one more task: combined with his willpower, he's able to forge his own Green Lantern ring, an act that creates a boom heard around the universe by anyone connected to the emotional spectrum, including the missing Corps, the remaining Guardians, and even members of the other different color Lantern Corps. Hal states that only the Guardians could create rings, so I love this idea that with one's own willpower, a ring could be created; I mean, technically he's using another a weapon made by the Guardians to make it, but it's still cool nonetheless. It ends with Hal reciting the oath, becoming a full-fledged Green Lantern again with the goal of finding the rest of the Corps and reclaiming their rightful place in the universe.
As these Rebirth one-shots are supposed to act as prologues to the upcoming series, this issue succeeds very well in that aspect, introducing Hal as the main protagonist, signaling the rest of the Corps as the cast, and setting up Sinestro as the upcoming threat. I guess if there's any villain you want for the first arc of a new era, it's the one who represents the antithesis to our heroes: fear. In a way, this makes me think of how Geoff Johns started on the book; back then, the Corps was gone with Kyle Rayner as the only Green Lantern before Hal Jordan was resurrected and the rest of the Corps came back in tow. This issue talks about the dark times the Corps have been under and we get the sense that things are about to get cleaned up, which means its a good time to jump on if you have any interest in the Green Lantern franchise. It does talk about past events that I mentioned, but for me personally, it doesn't particularly make me want to go back and look at them in depth. It's time to make way for the future with the Lantern's light burning bright once again.
For a final note, I'm glad Ethan Van Sciver was back to draw this. Since he was part of the Green Lantern book with Johns when he revitalized it, so it just seemed right for him to be part of it once again. Besides that, the dude's a really good artist. He even did some work on Batman, but unfortunately kept having to get fill-in art even in the middle of stories, which made it hard to really appreciate them.
Written by Dan Abnett
Art by Scot Eaton and Oscar Jimenez
For some reason, Aquaman has a reputation of being joke hero. He's been the subject of jokes on shows like Robot Chicken (which can be forgiven since that show makes fun of everything) and on the Big Bang Theory when Raj dressed up as Aquaman for a group costume contest, and it didn't help that this costume apparently included a sea horse to ride like he did in the old cartoons. Aquaman wasn't my favorite hero, but I never got the hate. A lot of the ridicule seems to stem from the fact that he talks to fish, which I think is what a lot of people think that's all he does. There's more to Aquaman than that. For starters, he can breathe underwater and he's the king of Atlantis. Come on, that's cool. He also has dense skin (allowing him to survive under water and take more damage than a normal human) and he's super strong (once even giving Superman a punch that sent him flying). But besides that, would you really want to make fun of a guy who can summon sharks to eat people?
Again, Aquaman isn't a character I really followed closely in the comics. From what I heard though, when the New 52 began, they decided to take the idea of him as a joke to the public and apply make it canon in a very meta way. Aside from that, apparently Aquaman has had a tough time being accepted by both humans and Atlanteans, being he's a half-breed. Going into Aquman's Rebirth issue though, I wasn't exactly sure what would be new or different from before. What I found though was very basic.
The main antagonists of this issue are an Atlantean terrorist cell known as the Deluge, who Aquaman is trying to stop from using Fusion Bombs against the surface, as Aquaman is trying to build bridges between the two worlds. Aquaman's battle is being watched at an Atlantean embassy on the surface in Massachusetts by Mera and a few other Atlanteans (including Garth/Tempest). One of the guards takes note that "Our king fights his own people to spare the dry-landers", to which Mera replies that they are terrorists and not their people. After defeating them, he goes to eat at a nearby restaurant that he apparently frequents and is joined by Mera. All the while, we have a narrator throughout the whole issue talking about Aquaman, his upbringing, the perception of him by Atlanteans and humans (both being a joke and a menace), and his relationship with Mera. Though we do learn that his power to talk to fish is more of a mental command, like a Jedi mind trick of sorts. The narrator is then revealed to be classic Aquaman villain, Black Manta, vowing to destroy every aspect of his life, starting with Mera, who he believes lightens the burdens Aquaman carries. It's not a bad plan. If we learned anything from the Flashpoint universe, kill Mera and you get an Aquaman with no sense of morals. While it's still early to find a pattern, between Sinestro and Black Manta, they seem to be bringing in the well-known villains for a series' latest relaunch, which was the opposite of when the New 52 began with introducing brand new villains.
Like Wonder Woman's issue, this is a book with two artists, and it really hurts the flow in my opinion. For the most part, it's drawn by Scot Eaton, who does good but nothing special. But the weird thing is that the issue's first three pages and last two are done by Oscar Jimenez, and it's kind of bad in my opinion. While I'm not that familiar with his overall work, I get the sense that he's one of those artists who adds to much detail and ends up making it look messy (like Joe Quesada), especially in the faces of both Aquaman and Mera. I do give him props on his full costume shot of Black Manta on the final page though. But art styles aside, I don't understand how or why they structured the art this way. It's not even like when Wonder Woman's book changed artists because there was significance, or even a chapter break of sorts.
Like I said before though, it's very basic. If you never read Aquaman before, this would be a good starting point for you. But if you're familiar in any way with him, you really get nothing new here. He's the king of Atlantis, he's half-human, wants to keep peace between the two worlds, and Black Manta hates him. Unlike the other one-shots I've reviewed thus far, nothing is introduced that adds to the character or the overall mysteries of Rebirth. I'll still be getting the first volume of this series, but at this point, I don't really have any expectations.
Next week, we deal with an emerald archer, a half-robot, a couple rookie space cops, and a team of young heroes.
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