sdelmonte | This Week's Comics: DCU, TTY1

See below.

DC Universe 0 - So how do you review a comic that is essentially teasers for several upcoming projects plus one Big Reveal? You can't really say that the story is any good. And yet...there is the art. A whole buncha artists, and not a dud in the bunch. The stories in Final Crisis and the connected events might suck, but the pictures will be amazing. And we didn't even have anything from Scott Kolins, the artist on FC: Rogues Revenge.

But storywise...it's all teasers. Tempting teasers, but still just teasers. That said, the three pages with Batman and Joker were quite gripping; the page with Crispus Allen, Spectre, made me want to read the Spectre-Question miniseries after all; and nothing didn't seem at least interesting. So the comic did its job: it got lots of people to pay 50 cents to see teasers and to come back for more. I know better than to expect all the projects here to be good. But I find myself excited by it all.

Oh, and there's that Big Reveal. The whole tale is narrated by someone who starts out with a vague memory and a view of everything. Someone who knew Clark Kent and Hal Jordan. Someone who steadily gets his memory back, and then comes back to life. Someone named Barry Allen. Not that we see Barry (though that lightning-flashing-in-front-of-the-moon shot to end the comic was really cool). But we know it's him since Geoff Johns and Grant Morrison gave interviews to this effect. Which made the news. And which even crashed Newsarama for hours as fans debated whether it's a good thing or a bad thing for Barry to be back from the dead.

As part of the comic, though, it worked very well. It's a great set-up for things to come. It hints at Barry playing a huge role and being the hero we want and need. It's an epic start to an epic story, and whatever qualms I might have about bringing back yet another Silver Age hero are overwhelmed for now. Never mind that I am and will always be a huge Barry Allen fan and really am glad to have him back (even if I think his time has passed).

So in short, I recommend every DC fan out there pay the 50 cents and see what's coming. The rest of you? You might want to try, too, but be advised that you might not know what's going on.

Teen Titans Year One 4 - Kid Flash, Aqualad and Wonder Girl do a TV interview. Hijinks ensue, even as Robin tries to find a way to be with his team and still do what Batman tells him. Simple, fun, lightweight. Like before. I think that there is enough here that DC should consider an ongoing series with these characters. It's not the greatest book ever, but it's worth the time and it remains the only DCU book I would share with a kid.