miércoles, 30 de noviembre de 2016

Some thoughts about New Talent Showcase #1

There are always stories to tell.

Superman, Wonder Woman, Harley Quinn, Hawkgirl and Constantine have a few things in common, all of them have their own sort of adventures that are worth seeing.

I have been anticipating this comic for a while. For people who don't know, DC has recently decided to give more opportunities to new writers and artists to work on their properties and with the appropriately named New Talent Showcase, they're really showing their investment in these new creators in an anthology issue focusing on several popular characters. How does it fare?

Weeeeell, is okay but not great sadly.

I'm going to mention a general theme that you will find in these stories, they mostly seem like sets-up to upcoming bigger stories (which I'm not sure when they're going to be eventually told) and for that reason most of them don't have a proper nor satisfying conclusion. Second, the presentation is not the best since pretty much each of these tales start with very little uniqueness in their narration, pacing, creativity or characterization so there's not a lot to see in terms of style.

Third, let's start with the stories themselves.

Adam Smith handles a story focusing on John Constantine trying to help Zatanna, not going to say much but the writer does a solid job at depicting the character while playing with some of his classic themes as well as interpreting his relationship with Zee nicely. Not a bad little story overall. Siya Oum's artwork is appropriate for depicting the scenes in their normal life as well as in their supernatural one.

Then comes Vita Ayala writing about Wonder Woman and quite frankly is quite weak since she doesn't offer any interesting aspects about the character and in many aspects she gets a lot wrong by portraying her as a person completely devoted to war in a story not interesting enough to be invested into. Khary Randolph's art offers cool scenes but is a bit too erratic in storytelling.

Michael Moreci handles a segment about Kyle Rayner and Carol Ferris and he gets both characters and their relationships decent enough while introducing a powerful threat but really, none of this is particularly compelling despite that is solidly written. Barnaby Bagenda's pencils are really the best part of this story thanks to his great storytelling and style.

Hawkgirl by Erica Schultz fares a little better since it focuses on a character we haven't seen in a while so she can take a few liberties to depict her personality and story and they're engaging enough to be interested in what happens next. Sonny Liew sells the premise thanks to his ability to depict scenes in a creative way.

Christopher Sebela offers a story about Deadman while touching some classic traits of the character while creating a decent story with enjoyable dialogue. David Messina's pencils are beautiful with a clean, expressive and fluid style that creates a lot of great scenes.

On the other hand, Wonder Girl by Hena Khan is not that good since she plays with some of the leftover ideas from Teen Titans with characterization, story and dialogue that don't bring anything new to the table. Emanuela Luppachino's artstyle is the best part of the story thanks to her beautiful characters and vibrant style.

Later Emma Beeby creates a story between Catwoman and Wonder Woman. Sometimes Selina seems kinda out of character by automatically confronting Diana when she should know she can beat her but otherwise, their personalities are accurate and the dialogue is enjoyable. Minkyu Jung's pencils are a joy to watch especially during action scenes.

Michael MacMillian delivers a story about Superman trying to save Lois from the Joker and it does have some creative moments along with solid characterization which makes me intrigued about their future. Juan Ferreyra definitely brings some great storytelling.

Finally Joelle Jones offers a story about Harley Quinn and is fun. Fun dialogue, characterization and premise about the Arkham immates escaping. Sam Lofti's cartoony style gets the best of it.

Overall, not a must have issue and some of the stories were not really remarkable but a few of them show promise and makes me wonder what will happen next for some of these creators.

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