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    First Wave

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    a 6 issue mini-series featuring Doc Savage, The Spirit, and Batman teaming-up. This also goes all the way back to the Bob Kane days were Batman would use a gun.

    Review: First Wave #2

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    Zack Freeman

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    Edited By Zack Freeman

    No Caption Provided
    The Blackhawks start playing dirty when the Spirit starts meddling in their affairs. 

    The Good

    Rags Morales is a masterful storyteller with a truecommand of body language, setting and composition. He puts the work into rendering of everything from Batman's hi-tech plane to a gumshoe's messy office to even a bubbly bathroom with equal care. It's his talents, in fact, that make my issues with the art doubly-frustrating.

    The Bad

    I'm a little conflicted about the art. I'm a big fan of Morales' work, but I've never been a fan of comics featuring colored art that hasn't been inked. I've only seen it work a couple times, and this definitely isn't the case. I realize they're trying to give this a unique look, but I think there were a lot of other ways that could've been accomplished. I don't know if Ruffino's colors are to blame, because he does some good production work, but it never looks right when you can see the pencils underneath. Instead of appreciating the art for what it was, I was more often thinking about how much better it could look with an inker tightening the lines. It was enough to be distracting. 
     
    I wasn't feeling the story, in general, either. I understand that the conceit of this series is to unite all the pulp-era characters together, but these characters are just too different to jibe together cohesively. I'm so used to seeing the Spirit in more down-to-Earth crime stories with a touch of humor that it just doesn't sit right to see him portrayed like another superhero. The whole thing just feels like a mess, and the five or six page monologue at the end doesn't really tie it all up that well, either. The correlation between the captions and the panels just wasn't hitting me. In fact, it was more often confusing.

    The Verdict  - 2/5

    The best comparison I can make is that this felt like reading a crossover between something like the Transformers and the Green Hornet. Could you plot out a story? Sure. Would it feel right? Probably not. The best way to put it is that this felt like a soup. The ingredients mixed in would taste good on their own, but not together. And I think my complaints about the ink-less art can fit under that descriptor, as well.
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    Kowalczyk

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    #1  Edited By Kowalczyk

    Kinda sad to see only a 2, still might pick this up

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    Theodore

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    #2  Edited By Theodore

    agreed, I read it... it was meh.

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    Green ankh

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    #3  Edited By Green ankh

    I havent read this issue yet. But from you said my first fears may be true.  I wasn't sure how Batman might fit with the Spirit and Savage. 

     


     

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    Nova`Prime`

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    #4  Edited By Nova`Prime`

    I read the first one and the Batman Doc Savage prologue, I have to say just from the prologue itself this is an awesome concept. But that was thrown out the window when I read the first real issue. It just seems like there is way to much going on and nothing really connecting them. I was debating on picking this issue up but now that I've read this review I think I will wait and see if they release this mini in trade.

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    Green ankh

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    #5  Edited By Green ankh


     wish i read this before reading issue 2. It was like a badly edited film.
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    Illuminarch

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    #6  Edited By Illuminarch

    I stopped caring about this series when I read Azzarello's politically correct posturing in the back of the prologue (Doc Savage is "mixed-race", technicolor Blackhawks, etc...). That told me that not only was this going to be a frustrating read, but that the author did not know much about the characters. These doubts were only confirmed by reading the first issue, which was muddled and mostly incoherent. 
     
    The thing is, the original Pulps themselves are not very good, so it shouldn't take much skill to make a passable Doc Savage/Batman/whoever story. These comics, however, almost make the original novellas look like sophisticated literature.

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    bakanekonei

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    #7  Edited By bakanekonei

    Well, Nei Ruffino isn't a HE. The art is inked by Rags himself as well as greywashed.

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