Phil Noto: Artist
What a fun comic. I'll start off with that. Noto's art is perfect for this. Everyone has this sort of emptiness and falsehood to themselves, save for Batman, Savage, and Savage's partner(s). The backgrounds are great, with bright colours, palm trees, cliffs, and huge skyscrapers; though Gotham seems to have transplanted itself from New York/Chicago, to Los Angeles when it feels fit.
Going into this I had reservations. Azzarello is the gritty guy, which makes him somewhat ideal to write Batman, and while I loved Lex Luthor: Man of Steel, His Joker comic was rather unnecessary. It belonged more in the continuity of the Dark Knight movie, rather than the actual bat-verse. It was just sort of mindless minutia, unlike The Killing Joke which offered a clever idea to the “origin story” of the Joker.
Still I digress, Azzarello handles things perfectly, even without his life partner Lee Bermejo. As I said before this comic was a lot of fun. Think Batman in the setting of the Mask, when Jim Carry first meets Cameron Diaz, meanwhile everyone around him sounds like Richard Jeni, that sort of confident swagger. It's the mark of a good writer especially in the comic medium to capture the voices of the characters, something Chris Yost could really learn.
Because this story is pretty much just a set up for what's to come in the First Wave universe, I don't want to spoil too much. It's nice to see Batman green while still in the Bat-suit, as well as a young Bruce Wayne, who still acts like a young person, very strong characterisation there. As I said again Noto's artwork is top notch for this stuff. A quick digression though, he is a huge fan of prominent jaws which is a bit strange on women, still the proportions work for this. Definitely pick this one up.
Finally, I would recommend to play either any kind of Zoot Suit Riot/Sing Swing Sing variation while reading this. However if you're like me and like your new music, I would go for the Dear Hunter, Smiling Swine and City Escape are two songs that fit this quite nicely.
Just for the record, another thing that makes this new pulp universe awesome when it starts up in March; it's going to be illustrated by Rags Morales. Beyond his amazing artwork, what a great name to be doing a pulpish universe. Rags.
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