Title: DC Universe #0 (Click to go to the release post)
Writer(s): Grant Morrison and Geoff Johns (Click to see other books from this writer released on this site)
Review source: Dan Phillips (Don't click it, read the review here... )
Review:
- As promised by Grant Morrison, Geoff Johns and the DC hype machine, DC Universe Zero delivers a handful of gripping primers for future stories, most notably Final Crisis, Batman RIP and Blackest Night. This fifty-cent special doesn't, however, succeed in its second goal – to serve as an access point for newcomers to the DCU.
While Morrison and Johns may have intended this book to be passed around to non comics-reading friends or picked up by those inclined to do so by the cover-price alone, any otherwise oblivious reader who picks up DCU Zero will likely find themselves simultaneously confused and intrigued, particularly when you consider that the "big reveal" at the end of the issue isn't much of a reveal at all. In fact, if it wasn't spread all over the news today, it'd be easy for an unsuspecting fan to read through these pages and not notice that anything particularly momentous occurred, even if older DC readers likely experienced goose bumps during the powerfully drawn final page.
It's the subtlety of the issue's central premise that makes this book so unique and insanely different than something like, say, Countdown to Final Crisis. Together, Johns and Morrison have combined to deliver a very fragmented book that is nevertheless seamless in it's narrative voice, a massive achievement when you realize they worked with no less than eight artists and set-up a half-dozen separate stories. More so than in 52, Morrison and Johns' voices are indistinguishable from one another, which makes the transition from an artist like Ed Benes' pages to someone like George Perez' a lot easier to swallow. If two lesser writers had teamed up with a squad of artists to tackle a similar sort of book, the result could have ended up like a series of those four-page previews you can find on a variety of comics-related sites before every Wednesday. Instead, DC Universe stands more as a singular achievement and an engrossing tale that at the very least will make you thirsty for one or two of the stories it sets up.
If I have one main complaint about this book, it's that, with the exception of Wonder Woman's sequence, none of these individual stories are advanced or further developed in these pages. When it comes to the Blackest Night scene or the Batman RIP scene, fans won't find any startlingly new information, although they will find some awe-inspiring artwork (from Ivan Reis in the GL scene and Doug Mahnke in the Batman one). In many ways, it's as if these primers are there, not for the devoted DC reader, but any Marvel fan that decided to give this book a try. On a similar note to what I wrote earlier, I doubt any newcomer will take much out of a cryptic conversation between Batman and the Joker or a two page splash detailing the various different colored lanterns, no matter how well crafted they are.
DC Universe zero is a strange little beast of a comic. At times, it seems like it means to be a reward to long-time readers, but then rarely delivers anything we don't already know (with the obvious exception of the last page). At others, it seems like it means to be an access point for new readers, but then never goes out of its way to explain itself. Other than Morrison and Johns' voice, there's really only one consistent aspect of this book, and that's its ability to build excitement for future stories. In that regard, DC Universe Zero is wildly successful, considering I'm now more stoked than ever for Final Crisis, Blackest Night, Batman RIP, and yes, even the upcoming Wonder Woman tale (though I'm curious as to how DC plans on avoiding a law suit from Dark Horse and Frank Miller).
More info:
- Written by GRANT MORRISON & GEOFF JOHNS
Art by GEORGE PEREZ, TONY DANIEL, J.G. JONES, AARON LOPRESTI, IVAN REIS, PHILIP TAN and CARLOS PANCHECO
Cover by VARIOUS
Publisher: