It was another big week for major comics releases from DC, Marvel, Dark Horse and Image last week, and frankly not a bad one at that. With some big, hotly-anticipated #1 issues coming from every corner of comics, it seemed as good a time as any to do a review roundup focusing exclusively on first issues–and some good ones, at that! Check it out below.Before Watchmen: Silk Spectre #1 (DC Comics) – ***1/2Amanda Conner’s art is, as always, unassailably beautiful in this, the second issue of DC’s controversial Before Watchmen event.The issue probably owes more to Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ original even than Darwyn Cooke’s first issue of Minutemen did last week; it not only retains the nine-panel grid but also repeats specific images and lines of dialogue from Watchmen.The story also dives headlong into the complex blend of sexuality and violence that informed so much of Silk Spectre’s character in the first book, with a fight sequence that takes place literally while the scantily-glad vigilante is in her pajamas. Whatever sense of misogynistic glee might be implied by the cheesecake nature of the title is somewhat offset first by a female creator and secondly by the fact that every impressive, intimidating character in the book is female, with the sole male character in the story–Laurie’s boyfriend–essentially serving as good-natured background noise for the main story. It’s hard to say the degree to which it’s successful, though, particularly when he comes into the story carrying a Silk Spectre Tijuana Bible (also seen in Watchmen).It’s a promising start but hardly remarkable, particularly when you consider that there was some buzz ahead of time about how this book would be “the one to watch.” Were it not for Conner’s stunning visuals I’m not sure the script could sell itself.KISS: Dressed to Kill #1 (IDW Publishing) – **1/2I’ve never much understood the appeal of KISS comics, or really fictionalized fantasy stories featuring famous faces at all. This comic, while well-done, really does little to distance me from that opinion. While the lucrative KISS license is obviously a big “get” for IDW, the band themselves are too distractingly identifiable to place them into a fictionalized context and not have the overall story suffer.In other words, while IDW has done great things with franchises like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Ghostbusters and Godzilla, KISS: Dressed to Kill #1 is a story that feels like it would be better if only it weren’t for KISS. A supernatural mystery ably written by Chris Ryall with beautiful pencils from the always-great Jamal Igle only suffers from having the band’s over-merchandised mugs in the works.The Massive #1 (Dark Horse Comics) – *****You can read our interview with writer Brian Wood about The Massive here.
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