What beautiful, beautiful art. This Jesus Saiz work is probably my current favorite art--narrowly edging out the similar, and generally superior, Michael Lark. Seeing either of these two men draw superheroes is always a childhood-meeting-adulthood joy. Saiz's rendition of Firestorm in this issue started me thinking about writing an academic paper on the fan reaction to the new FIRESTORM series. Seriously. Lark's Superman splash in THE LEGEND OF HAWKMAN is even more amazing.
Oh, haven't I talked about the issue? Well, maybe that's because I try not to review conversations. It's a testament to both Andreyko and the editor, Joan Hilty, that I still read and recommend this comic book. I wouldn't just recommend it for the art (you don't see my trying to get you buy LEGEND OF HAWKMAN, do you?). Why do I credit Hilty? While it's all talk, it's well-paced talk. Andreyko writes human characters, sure, and humans do tend to talk a lot, but that doesn't necessarily mean it's all interesting or effective. This issue is effective in what it does, show the aftereffects of a life of super-crime and does so without the usual didactics.
If MANHUNTER were a graphic novel, or even showed some signs of having a story-arc (at this point, there is none. It's paced as an ongoing series and we all now how well these new ongoings are doing), I'd be praising this thing like Alan Moore wrote it. It's a fresh look at the DC Universe, along with BLOODHOUND, without all the costumed malarkey. The most interesting stories have always been those of the people and it's nice to see that comic books have finally gotten around to realizing it. It's not going to last so buy this one while you can. In a few years, when you're griping about GREEN LANTERN being boring again (don't believe me? Use HAWKMAN as a reference), you can dig it out and remember when things were at least headed in a good direction...
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