Lynda Carter for me is Wonder Woman. I’ve not read her comic before though I’ve seen her guest spot in a few so I was curious how Azzarello and Chiang were going to portray her. And two words come to mind. Warrior. Dark.

Let’s start with ‘warrior’. Within an instant of us first meeting Wonder Woman she goes from calm and serene into battle. And it’s ‘dark’ because well it just is. And saying why would give it away. Though the horses is what you might find most disturbing.

And it’s the horse scene that best illustrate why the art is probably the best I’ve encountered so far. I speed read it the first time as I wanted to offer an instant opinion to someone. Big mistake as Chiang says a lot in his panels as his transitions are very clever. something you’d miss without lingering. Good job I went back and read it.

Also the narrative is clever as even though the opening and closing scenes are book ends their narrative weaves and interacts into the middle section. And it’s subtle and clever.

Saying all that, lots is introduced and there are lot more questions than answers. But the combination teasing story and outstanding art means I’m definitely back for issue #2!

Bought on the DC Comics iPad app.

Part of the reason for me trying ‘The New 52’ is to try something different and last week saw the first major release of titles after the solitary arrival of Justice League (reviewed by me here). Now Justice League was familiar in terms of character personalities and in some ways how they’d react to each other. While enjoyable it wasn’t exactly new.

On the other hand I know little to zero about what makes up Stormwatch.  And I’m not really sure what to expect. Apart from the Martian Manhunter who ended up surprising and scaring me a little at one pivotal point as well as touching on the differences in his role here and in Justice League. Luckily it’s a fun mix of confusion and introduction.

They are looking for a new recruit who definitely doesn’t want to join. And they have interesting methods of persuasion. It makes a great form of introduction to some of the cast members of Stormwatch, some of whom have odd powers if you ask me but they seem to work for them and work in the story, which is quite refreshing.

Cornell lays other seeds such as something odd is going on on the moon, especially as you get a really close and disturbing insight into it, and flashback to Storwatches past to show that their history isn’t getting totally rewritten perhaps or at least to show their longevity. Oh, not to mention that something very odd is happening in the Himalayas

For the limited number of pages available (and I will stop brining this up I promise) it feels like it’s just got going without a feeling like being shortchanged. In fact Cornell manages to do more with his pages than the Justice League team did with theirs.

I don’t know if covers are that important in comics, they don’t work as newspaper front pages, though they often contain stunning art, they don’t usually add to the story but the trio on the cover on show here definitely isn’t the current status quo.

Though in contrast this feels darker and more adult and the art reflects that. Apart from the snow scenes. If I’m 100% honest the art is a little too murky for my tastes though it’s not the line art more the computerised shadowing that gives it a that not quite classic comic book feel that I enjoy.

More than enough interest in both characters and story potential to come back to Stormwatch for more next month.

I bought and read this on the DC Comics iPad app