Review: Leviathan Dawn #1
[Editor’s note: This review may contain spoilers.]
Writer: Brian Michael Bendis
Artist: Alex Maleev
Letterer: Joshua Reed
Reviewed by: Sean Blumenshine
Summary
Exploding out of the pages of the Event Leviathan miniseries, this all-new special blasts the DC Universe into a dangerous and brave new future! With Leviathan arrived, its leader’s identity revealed, and its plans known, what happens next? Now the heroes fight back! Leviathan changed the rules of the game, so now’s the time for the biggest players to get together and figure out a new strategy in this brave new world. It’s an extra-sized super-spy yarn from the Eisner Award-winning team of writer Brian Michael Bendis and artist Alex Maleev!
Positives
Alex Maleev’s cover is very cool. I love the looming chess pieces of the DC heroes. It invokes the machinations of Leviathan while being unique and interesting.
Maleev’s interior is also good. His style is well suited to the more serious tone. There’s a nice use of unique colors that help the book stand out and be a little more stylized. It’s a cool looking book.
This is a cool group of characters to put together. There’s a mix of lesser known and more popular characters but the popular characters are not obvious choices. It’s really cool to put Lois Lane and Steve Trevor in a book together. They’re two of the oldest DC supporting characters; it’s neat to see them interact. I appreciate that Green Arrow finally has stuff to do again. And forcing Talia al Ghul on a team could be a lot of fun. She was certainly the most enjoyable aspect of the book. Every other character’s reactions to Talia were all pretty funny.
Negatives
Why is this a one-shot? The main purpose of this issue is to set up the Leviathan: Checkmate mini-series. So why isn’t this just the first issue of that mini-series? It’s kind of weird.
I’m not sure why this is trying to be a more mature book. I never like when a comic wants to appear like a book for adults by using language. But then they censor the language. It feels like watching the television cut of a movie; it’s distracting. If you can’t cuss, don’t cuss.
Leviathan is deeply uninteresting. He’s every generic villain rolled into one. He’s got big boring speeches about the same old thing. The world sucks and only he can change it. I’ve heard this shit before and it’s so dull.
Verdict
I didn’t like this issue. The main concept of this team is cool; it’s a great selection of characters. And the art is great. But Leviathan is a boring villain and concept. I do not care about what’s happening here at all. It has potential but this issue is mostly boring.
