First of all, given the strength of some of the creators and the incredibly low price point for this promotional book, it's a solid value, a comic book that anyone who enjoys the medium can appreciate and enjoy on some level. Overall, the visions of the characters in this book -- as well as the performances of the creators -- fall into two categories: radically different and interesting, and same-old-same-old.
A.J. Lieberman's upcoming Martian Manhunter series apparently promises to provide revelations about the title characters past and his alien culture. One could argue that this makes it one of the properties that a different vision, but it doesn't, not really. I think every series that's been titled Martian Manhunter has taken that approach, and has even introduced some kind of evil from Mars, just as this new take does. Furthermore, Barrionuevo's art is flat and even loose and rough at points. Of course, I wasn't taken with this creative team's work on Batman: Gotham Knights, and I'm not surprised that it doesn't click for me now.
Bruce Jones takes a smart approach with the "last" Omac in the upcoming limited series. The hero of the book proves to be no hero at all, but rather a self-centered but grounded junkie. I thought actually Jones sugar-coated the character too much here. Guedes's art is detailed and photorealistic, and it reminds me of Tony Harris's work on Ex Machina. But for such a high-action story, it also felt far too stiff, and the washed-out colors fail to capture the energy and weirdness of the central premise and title character.
Crisis Aftermath: The Battle for Bludhaven introduced readers to most of the players from the upcoming Uncle Sam and the Freedom Fighters mini, but the plotting on that book was all over the place. Palmiotti and Gray's work here is more focused, and the political content -- especially Firebrand's diatribes -- drew me in. The real star of the book will no doubt be Daniel Acuna's artwork. We've seen it on a lot of DC covers recently, but this project marks the debut of his interior work in mainstream American comics. I like the character designs, and the haunted, painted look is really appealing. But there's no doubt that the art on this segment was far too dark as well. It was so inky at times that I had to strain to discern the image I was meant to see.
Justiniano and Walden Wong are a perfect art team to bring the Creeper to life. The penciller's angular approach and the dark detail the inker brings to his work are a great fit, and Chuckry's colors are appropriately dark and eerie. The problem lies with the script. Steve Niles provides an accessible introduction to the Creeper, but he's not doing anything new with the character. We've seen this sort of fare before, and I found I was a bit bored with it.
Gail Simone provides the most interesting and challenging script of the book, and the most entertaining as well. At first, this new vision of the Atom seems a lot like the old one, but it's with the supporting cast that it sets itself apart. The achronological dialogue was unique and intriguing, while the quotable asides were a lot of fun. Byrne certainly establishes the action-packed tone of the plot quite well, but I found his designs for the antagonists to be far too generic and derivative of what we've seen from him before.
The Shazam! plot just offers a bare taste of what to expect from Judd Winick's writing on the upcoming limited series. All we really see is that the other members of the Marvel Family lose their powers while the Big Red Cheese himself sees a proportionate boost in power, something we've seen before. But what's interesting about this isn't how Winick tries to reinvent Captain Marvel, but how artist Howard Porter reinvents himself. His work here strikes me as a cross between the styles of Tom Mandrake and Dan Brereton. The artwork is far more refined that what we saw from Porter on JLA and The Flash.
Tony Bedard bookend segments seem to have irked some readers, as allegations have arisen that DC is mining elements from the 1980s Crisis on Infinite Earths series far too much. I'm reserving judgment, as I believe there's some potential in the concept that's reintroduced in those few pages.
One thing that struck me as odd about this promotional book was that only one ongoing series is previewed. The rest of DC's "Brave New" titles are limited series, and it's not like these titles are all part of a major event and marketing campaign like limited series that were teed up in DC Countdown (DC's previous promo-book-for-a-buck). The All-New Atom merits the extra push, but I'm at a loss as to why the other titles -- several of which seem like little more than run-of-the-mill mini-series -- are so special as to be included. 6/10
