I picked up 2 debut issues from DC’s alternate universe Flashpoint epic this week. There are so many that it’s always a gamble, but I really enjoyed both of these.
Grodd of War #1 has an intriguing premise behind that cool title. Starring the evil, telepathic Gorilla Grodd as a bored leader, the opening narration of the powerful primate tells you all you need to know. “Aquaman sinks half of Europe and he’s considered to be the most dangerous being on the planet. I slaughter half of Africa and most people don’t even know my name.” Written with gusto by Sean Ryan and superb art by Ig Guara, this is a dark tale, to be sure, but the creative duo do a remarkable job of making the grotesque gorilla a somewhat sympathetic character. Not an easy job seeing he kills Congarilla, and later Catman in combat, and forces a human boy to kill his fellow rebel soldiers, before telling him to, “spend every minute of your life planning and thinking about how you’re going to kill me.” This desperation for a worthy foe to ease his boredom, now that he’s ruling all of Africa, finally sees him make a possibly suicidal plan to travel to Europe to take on the mad Aquaman and Wonder Woman. I can’t wait to see where this goes next.
Legion of Doom #1, like Grodd’s title, is a villain centric mini-series. Written by Adam Glass, with art by Rodney Buchemi, it’s not as entertaining as Grodd of War, but it does have a few nice surprises, and a plot that also makes me curious for what comes next. The fire loving baddie gets foiled by Cyborg after killing half of the Firestorm duo, and catching fire and winds up in jail, and even gets the traditional toilet dunking welcome. The prison is divided into normals and metas, and JLA enemy android Amazo is one of the guards. At least the prison looks cool (from the outside) as it resembles the semi-circle swamp base from the ’70s Superfriends cartoon. Throughout the issue, Heatwave boasts that he has a plan to get out, and we see it play out in rather gross way in the last 2 pages, as Plastic Man climbs out of his cell mate’s gut! I wasn’t expecting that, but Plas used to be a crim in the proper DC Universe, so it makes sense to see him all evil. It’s not a bad issue and the plot works well, despite Heatwave’s OTT Bond villain exclamations such as his love for fire being a hunger burning in his gut and, “I’d marry it if I could.”
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