Brandon and Azzarello = Trying to write their way off the sinking ship
Nic Klein = Drawing and Coloring in lieu of bailing
Joey Cavalieri = It’s all on your shoulders, brother!
Does anyone out there even care what’s happening with First Wave and the launch of the Spirit and Doc Savage ongoing series? I was genuinely excited by the pulp inspired “new universe” featuring Batman (complete with guns), the Blackhawks, Rima the Jungle Girl, along with the previously mentioned Doc Savage and Spirit . There’s been plenty to like with the imprint so far, but it’s shaping up to as an editorial bungle that will be cancelled by the early New Year. Instead of focusing attention on one title there are three related books each suffering from their own problems. The main title, First Wave, has been solid, but it started in March, and for whatever reason, Azzarello and Rags Morales have only completed three issues. The Spirit ongoing has been excellent but nobody is reading since the character was in a vile film and a recently cancelled title. Doc Savage has been okay but suffered from lousy art and a revolving door of writers. I must offer kudos to a job well done setting this one up, Mr. Cavalieri.
Joey Cavalieri is usually an editor that can be counted on to produce quality books out of his office at DC Comics. I find him to normally be among the best editors in the industry. He’s been at the helm of the Flash for years, led the way on Walt Simonson’s incredible Orion ongoing, and he brought back Mike Grell to the Warlord. Recently his office is responsible for the solid Zatanna and the wonderful Brave and the Bold. None of that output explains what’s going on here. This whole imprint appears to be another monumental failure due to lay in bargain bins for decades to come.
Doc Savage is a legendary character that predates every comic superhero. Most comic readers know of Clark Savage Jr., but how many people have any affinity for him? Most of his adventures were published in pulps more than seven decades ago. You would find it difficult to rustle up too many avid Doc Savage fans that aren’t collecting Social Security. How many of them are spending four bucks on a comic book? I first learned of the character as a child in the ‘80s from DC’s previous attempt to bring Doc to the modern world. I enjoyed the comics back then and in the ensuing decades have read a few of the pulps. This is a character that I want to get to know more about, but reading over a hundred novels just hasn’t happened. I am more aware of the character than most people today but in no way am I an expert. Let me ask, why is this book meandering about for six issues, not getting to the heart of what once made Doc Savage one of the most recognizable characters in America?
My theory: poor editorial decisions.
The first four issues were written by acclaimed author Paul Malmont. Malmont wrote The Chinatown Death Cloud Peril which is a fictional account of Lester Dent (creator of Doc Savage) teaming with Walter Gibson (creator of the Shadow) as they attempt to solve the murder of HP Lovecraft. Since he wrote a book featuring the creator of Doc Savage he must be qualified to write a comic book script. NOT! Malmont may win some awards for his novels, but there will be no Eisner or Harvey Awards coming his way this year. He spun a serviceable story through four issues that didn’t do much to introduce Savage or his huge supporting cast to the new generation. Worst of all the fourth issue ended with Savage framed for a crime he did not commit. Come on? Really? The hero trying to clear his name is the most overused and plain boring crutch of storytelling.
Malmont was discarded after the negative buzz built. B. Clay Moore came in last month and wrote a continuation of the plotline, but this month Brian Azzarello and Ivan Brandon join the title and they tossed that plot out the window to move the book in a new direction. Sure Savage’s framing is vaguely mentioned by a shadowy government type that wants Savage to stop some WMDs, but that’s it. Granted the plotline was going nowhere except the exoneration of Savage, but color me pissed off after spending twenty bucks to buy those five comics, only to find out they were all a waste of paper. That lack of editorial planning is the main component that’s going to decimate this imprint.
I’m a fan of Ivan Brandon’s work. I’ve been reading his stuff all the way back to his days at Beckett Comics with Ruule and at Image with the awesome and NYC Mech. I’m excited to see him working at one of the big two. Brian Azzarello is always an odd choice to write anything relating to superheroes as I find him to be rather pompous and someone that looks down on superhero comics and their fans. I sat through a few too many of his panels where he denigrated fans at various conventions. Pomposity aside, Azz normally can be counted on to write a solid comic script….even one featuring the superheroish Doc Savage, as can be evidenced by the main First Wave book.
The pair does a decent job of setting up Savage at the start of what feels like a premiere issue. Yet, considering how much more comfortable these two are with the comic format they immediately bog Savage down in another lackluster story. Apparently Doc is going to be forgiven for everything that happened in the previous five issues, yet he runs out on the deal, but actually does what he’s asked to do. It’s not particularly well planned or executed. We barely get to know anyone on the team again, although the cast is all tagging along. Savage ends up in a war torn section of the Middle East ready to fight terrorists as we reload for a seventh issue that may finally rise above rank mediocrity.
It’s undeniable that the change in artist this month is the one saving grace for the title. Howard Porter was the penciler the first five issues, and it was the most lackluster work I’ve ever seen from a guy I always thought of as A-list. This is coming from a massive fan of Porter. I even have a page of his artwork hanging up in my house. Every issue under Porter’s pencil featured stilted action and characters that were bland and indecipherable from one another. Nic Klein adds a needed grit to these pulp proceedings. The characters take appropriate shape and the action feels alive. Klein’s work doesn’t have the pop of Rags Morales’s stuff on First Wave, but that book seemingly is published on a thrice annual basis. Considering Klein probably had almost no time to get ready for this assignment, as the proverbial roof flew off the title, I wouldn’t be surprised if Klein took endless months to draw one issue his work might just take on magical qualities. I’m not a fan of artists missing deadlines by months. Get yourself together Rags!
Why did DC insist on releasing two ongoing series along with the First Wave mini series? Why did Rags Morales have such little lead time as to not be able to get the work done with any modicum of professional timing? Why does DC bother to spend money on a project and give it no chance in the long run? This whole launch is stuck in a bog of general disinterest from comic readers that the main line Savage and Spirit series will probably be cancelled long before Azzarello and Morales find a way to get issue six of First Wave on comic shelves. That’s pretty pathetic! First Wave should have run its course long before spinoff projects were allowed to carry forth from the brand. It’s a common mistake by DC to launch an imprint with varying degrees of quality that leave people unwilling to plunk down a large pile of change. Four bucks a month would have sufficed with First Wave to build the brand of Doc Savage and then launch this series afterwards with a well thought out team. I have never blamed an editor in a review before, but First Wave is shaping up to be an epic fail that must fall squarely on Joey Cavalieri’s lap.
