Another offering from DC’s New 52 (though its getting quite old); this time its Vibe. You know, Vibe, from the old Justice League Detroit comic, or from the currently running Justice League of America comic. Yeah, I don’t know why they brought him back either. It was probably to appease the great power that is Major Spoiler’s very own Matthew Peterson, seeing as how he and Geoff Johns are the only people with fond memories of him. Does Vibe hold up on his own? Find out after the jump!
Justice League of America’s Vibe #1
Writer(s): Geoff Johns, Andrew Kreisberg
Art: Pete Woods, Sean Parsons
Colors: Brad Anderson
Letters: Carlos M. Mangual
Cover: David Finch
Publisher: DC Comics
Cover Price: $2.99
OUT OF TUNE
Justice League of America’s Vibe #1 is the most mediocre, and typical, first issue for a superhero comic I have ever read. It has the cliche of the protagonist’s origin, and really entire motivation for being a hero, being tied to the tragic death of a family member. There is even a shadowy government organization, called A.R.G.U.S., that basically spells out everything that is going on for to the main character. They tell him the origin of his powers, that Detroit is now the new gateway to the multiverse, and basically all the other necessary information the reader will need for the rest of the series. The problem is that it is presented in just walls of boring text, and that despite all this exposition we are never told exactly what Vibe’s powers are. I got the impression he cannot show up on cameras and can shoot inter-dimensional vibration blasts, but it would be nice to get a slightly more concrete explanation. Throughout the explanation they name drop things such as “mother box” and “boom tube” which, while familiar to old comic fans, could easily be another wall of alienation to a new reader who was just reading this for the first time.
NOTHING TO SEE HERE
The art, too, is incredibly average. It works, but there is nothing unique about it. Its not even especially well drawn, there are some messy bits and some unpolished bits, so I can not even say that was competently done. The artist seems to have a real big problem drawing lips, a minor grievance, but one I noticed none the less.
BOTTOM LINE: EH
This book is just so incredibly average that it comes off as sub-part compared to some of the other more excellent books currently coming out. Its really not worth spending your money on, unless you are the most die hard of Vibe fans I suppose.
DID YOU READ THIS ISSUE? RATE IT!
Reader Rating
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2 Comments
I generally agree with you. It’s a nice reboot of the character handled in the most boring way possible. I cannot begin to imagine why we need this title and his presence in the JLA, especially since the latter book did a better (and briefer) job of the intro.
FWIW, I would put the recent Phantom Lady intro just ahead of this as the most predictable first issue I’ve read in a long time, however. And the other recent JLA #1, Katana, was horrific. It does seem to be time to let the New 52 settle a bit…
It at least explains why they might want to have a Justice League team based in Detroit. That never made sense to me in the older runs. In the containment cells they showed Gypsy who was an original member of the JLA Detroit and it looked like Pariah was in the back, but I’m not certain. It’s pretty weak for an opening issue, which is sad since he’s a character that really needs some heavy work to make him remotely interesting, or at least to be taken seriously.