DC sent me over copies of Amazons Attack #1 and the latest issue of JSA. I do understand the first, as it’s the start of the latest in status-quo-altering events for the stalwart giant, but sending me the second part of a JLA/JSA crossover that also throws in the Legion for good measure is sort of baffling.
That said: I thought Amazons Attack was a perfectly acceptable genre comic. Will Pfeifer’s a heck of a dialogue writer with a real knack of putting together a compelling flow while Pete Woods continues to provide clean, clear storytelling that shows a great handling of subtleties like facial expression and body language. My one complaint is the complete lack of information given as to Wonder Woman’s current status and why Hippolyta is angry to the point of sending the Amazonian armies to topple Man’s World1. There is a handy caption box telling the reader to refer to issues 7 and 8 of Wonder Woman, but another panel or two with captions explaining the goings-ons over at Picoult’s book would have been appreciated. There is one violent part near the very beginning I could have done without, but I can see why its inclusion was deemed necessary and overall, I have to say that the first issue of Amazons Attack is much more of a success than I anticipated.
JSA #5 featured less in the way of disembowelings and more things like Batman going fighting nightmare alternate versions of himself and Superman being nice to younger heroes, which is something I always appreciate. I actually felt like just enough was being explained here that I was able to catch up on the gist of things pretty easily, even if I wasn’t quite sure why they were doing what they were doing, just that something was being done and they were doing that thing. To modify my complaint about Amazons Attack: a flashback or recap page at the very beginning wouldn’t have hurt this one bit2. To end this positively, I feel that it should be noted that Fernando Pasarin provided some nice-looking art that was perfect for the material.
1 Capitalized like that, it looks like the name of a gay-friendly theme park. I can picture it now: Cowboy Island, Construction Worker Mountain, the Closeted Actor Pavillion.
2 Yes, I know it’s being written with an eventual collection in mind, but it’d be nice if DC’s editorial could work with the audience a little bit.
