Stormwatch, Vol. 1: The Dark Side by Paul Cornell
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I picked this up because of the mention of Stormwatch in another graphic novel I had finished, and partially because Martian Manhunter is in it. I thought it might be an interesting story. I had no previous information about this book going into it, and I feel that newbies might be confused with this first book. It's a reboot of the series, since DC Comics absorbed Wildstorm, and as a result of the New 52, DC Comics-wide reboot.

It's pretty good, but I was left pretty confused about what was going on. The cast is intriguing, and it sort of reminded me of the BBC show Torchwood a little, although it's not exactly like it.

Things I liked:

*I liked the idea of a motley crew hanging out in hyperspace and going on missions to protect the galaxy and more specifically Planet Earth.

*There is a pretty diverse group of folks in the group.

*Since I am a bit of a sucker for swordsmanship, I liked that one of the crew was the Eminence of Blades, pretty much the Master of all Swordmasters.

*For those who like a little bit of GLBT, there is a love at first sight scenario between Apollo and Midnighter.

*Apollo's power of absorbing solar energy and using it to give himself super strength was pretty cool.

*Jack Hawskmoor can essentially communicate with the spirit of all cities. That was kind of neat.

What I Didn't Care For:

*I was confused about what going on. The writing essential drops you in the story in media res, with no background and limited revelation on characters as the story goes along. The sketches at the end told me more about the characters than I learned reading it. I don't think that's a good strategy since the whole New 52 is about introducing new readers to tried and true imprints.

*The layout was awkward and contributed to my feeling of confusion about what was going on. The artwork didn't speak to my soul very much. It wasn't bad, with the colors being bright and appealing, but not really that impressive. As a side note, I couldn't tell if Midnighter was supposed to be black and that Jenny Quantum was Asian.


**As an aside, I looked this up on New 52 and I think they took a pretty different direction with the story from what it was in the Wildside comics. It seems much less edgy that it once was. That's neither here nor there.

Overall, this was okay. Not bad, but not that impressive. I might pick up later volumes, but it's not a huge priority at this point.


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