STORMWATCH #1
The Dark Side, Part 1

November 2011

Written by Paul Cornell

Pencils by Miguel Speulveda

Inks by Miguel Speulveda

Cover by Miguel Speulveda

Synopsis

In Hyperspace at Stormwatch headquarters, the Engineer is keeping an eye for the Horn that was recently discovered as well as the mission in Moscow.  There, Jack Hawksmoor, Projectionist, and Martian Manhunter attempt to recruit Apollo to the team.  Apollo turns them down.  Meanwhile, the Engineer reports the moon seems to be threatening Earth.  On the moon, Harry Tanner reports the lunar surface seems to be attacking him.  Suddenly he falls through the crust, into the moon’s core.  There, he encounters the Scourge of Worlds, the first response to the sounding of the Horn.  The Scourge intones he will make the world stronger through devastation.  The Scourge decides Harry will make a splendid host body.  In the Himialayas, a team investigates the Horn.  Meanwhile, Jack, Projectionist, and Martian Manhunter have caught up to Apollo.  Suddenly, the three are attacked and knocked.  Midnighter appears.  With Apollo’s help, he can kill every last bastard on the planet.  

Review by Binkley (e-mail)

I enjoyed this issue more the second time around, partly because I was able to put the pieces together and understand it a little bit better.  Based on the understanding gained from the second read-through, I thought this was an excellent first issue, establishing a couple of different plot threads and mysteries as well as the character interactions.  There is enough going on in this issue, a lot of fantastically weird elements like the claws out of the moon or the giant horn or Midnighter’s last comment, that I am eager to see where this goes next.  The problem, however, is that I am not sure if most readers will take the time to read this issue a second time.  Or take their time and digest it slowly.  I could easily see someone being turned off my strangeness of the characters (especially those not familiar with Wildstorm) and the strangeness of things going on and not giving this a second chance.  Which is a shame, because a second read through and things become clearer.  And better. 

So, based on this Martian Manhunter at some point in the Justice League, or may be in the Justice League and is pulling double duty.  Either way, it hopefully should make some people happy.  He may not be one of the founding members, but at least he was a member. 

The footnote on the first page makes me wonder if DC made a mistake in terms of the timing of releasing this comic.  If the horn was seen in Superman, don’t you think it would’ve made more sense to have that comic come out first, then this one?

Technically this comic bears little relation to the old Stormwatch book from the defunct Wildstorm universe.  In the original book, the characters were tasked to deal with superhuman problems.  None of the original team appears in this book.  In fact, this book is more of the beginnings of The Authority, with much of the cast of characters from that book appearing here. 

The shot of the past Stormwatch teams includes Ertigan, who is one of the main characters from the upcoming Demon Knights, which also happens to be written by Cornell.  I sense a strong connection between the two books.

STRANGE SIGHTING

Page 15, top left hand panel, standing to the left of Apollo. 

	Main		Page	NEXT ISSUE