Wednesday Number Ones is a weekly feature here at Comic Pants. We take the books that are premiering a first issue from that week and give a quick opinion on them. From time to time we may also include more than issue number ones in this feature. If a noteworthy one-shot or the first issue of a new story arc is released, we may talk about it in this feature.

This week we will cover Batman/The Spirit, Crossing Midnight #1, Guy Gardner Collateral Damage #1 of 2, Immortal Iron Fist #1, Onslaught Reborn #1 of 5, Punisher X-Mas Special #1, Spider-Man Family Featuring Spider-Clan #1, Transformers Escalation #1 of 5, Ultimate Vision #0 of 6, Whisper One-Shot and Zombies Vs Robots #1 of 2.

Dave Farabee Read and Thought:

Batman #659 (DC Comics): Fan-fave writer John Ostrander (Grimjack, Suicide Squad) takes the Batman reigns for a four-part mystery involving a fire-themed serial killer who claims to be meting out justice. Ostrander strikes an interesting mix between familiar Batman tropes (a very pulp villain; Gordon’s “I hate when he does that” when Batman disappears on him) and more modern sensibilities (grisly murders; some CSI style corpse-prodding; Bruce enjoying a little casual sex). And I like it, especially served up via some of the best Tom Mandrake art I’ve ever seen. His shadowy-but-heroic Batman is how I always want my Dark Knight to look.

Young Guns: Reloaded Sketchbook (Marvel Comics): This sketchbook spotlights the second batch of artists Marvel’s looking to promote as their hot “young guns”…regardless of age or how much time some of these guys have spent in the industry (over a decade for at least one of ‘em!). Anyway, I think the “young guns” term is aimed more at convincing retailers to bank on these names in the future than it as at getting readers hyped for ‘em, but this is a pretty decent sketchbook just the same. You’ll see sketches and un-inked pages from the following: Ariel Olivetti, Billy Tan, Clayton Crain, Simone Bianchi, Leinil Yu, and Pasqual Ferry. A bit pricey at $3.99, but aspiring superhero artists should give ‘er a look.

Guy Gardner: Collateral Damage #1 of 2 (DC Comics): Can’t say I was wild about the sexism that veers a little close to misogyny, but for big chunks of Collateral Damage I was surprisingly entertained. The story sees former laughingstock Green Lantern G’Nort gone serious as a result of the Rann/Thanagar War and looking to Guy Gardner, of all people, to broker a peace deal. WTF? It’s so crazy it just might work, with Howard Chaykin writing an entertainingly boorish Guy Gardner and putting out some exceptionally good artwork in the process. It’s a $5.99 prestige format book - a pricey, overused format - but I gotta say: the format really works in service to the visuals here. Chaykin’s very graphic style fits not only the classic Gil Kane Green Lantern designs, but also the sci-fi stuff in general. Worth a look if you like the characters involved.

Transformers: Escalation #1 of 6 (IDW Publishing): This is the follow-up miniseries to IDW’s relaunch of the Transformers license with Transformers: Infiltration, and simply put: if you liked Infiltration, you’ll like Escalation. It’s still Transformers guru Simon Furman at the helm, continuing the “robots in disguise” approach such that the Transformers are genuinely mysterious and paranoia-inducing to most humans. In fact, the Transformers are actually being hunted by a sort of anti-Transformers special ops team in this issue. I think I like the old “good vs. evil” stuff of the 80s better, but Furman’s got some neat ideas and he’s much more liberal in giving the Transformers “screentime” than he was in the previous mini. Biggest downside for me is that, while E.J. Su’s a solid artist most of the time, I get a little lost during his action sequences. Not good for a Transformers book.

David Martindale Read and Thought:

Zombies Vs Robots #1 of 2 (IDW): A world where a society of self aware robots defends the last human being not transformed by the zombie infection sounds like a novel and interesting approach to the over saturated field of zombie comics. The cover and interior page stock is quite thick and pleasant to the touch. Unfortunately, that is where the good ends and the bad begins. The extremely stylized, nearly monochromatic art, while interesting, doesn’t feel like it belongs in the book at all. The story is quite boring and told almost exclusively through narration. A good idea poorly executed; skip it.

Spider-Man Family Featuring Spider-Clan #1 (Marvel Comics): Four seperate Spider-Man stories for $4.99. If you’re a serious geek for Spider-Man stuff, you might enjoy the reprint issues, Spider-Man 2099 #3 and The Amazing Spider-Man #252, but the Spider-Clan story and the black and white story (I don’t think it’s a reprint?) are pretty bad. The art on the Spider-Clan story is fun, but the writing is atrocious, and the same can be said of the black and white story. If $4.99 is worth two reprints to you, flip through it to see what you think; otherwise skip it.

Crossing Midnight #1 (Vertigo): The first issue loses quite a bit of impact due to boring art. A concept as other worldly as this one should really be represented by art that is as shocking and awe inspiring as the mystical realm is obviously supposed to be. The writing fails to hook the reader as well. Truly dangerous and tragic events unfold for the central characters, but I can’t seem to care. An emotional attachment to the character needs to be established before one can expect real dramatic impact to come from bad things happening to them. The concept, on the other hand, is quite strong. I’ll be reading the second issue, but I won’t be holding my breath. Try it.

Nick Budd Read and Thought:

Onslaught Reborn #1 (Marvel Comics): “What a revoltin’ development this is!” It’s not my quote. In fact, it’s a remark that the Thing makes during this very issue, but boy, truer words have never been spoken. Rob Liefeld’s elongated, very over-done artwork feels dated here and Jeph Loeb’s use of Onslaught, a character that should never have been created in the first place, is laughable. There’s not much here to start with, and what there is feels like it was written in the ’90s and is only now being released. Save the money on Onslaught Reborn and find entertainment elsewhere.

Ultimate Vision #0 (Marvel Comics): Reprinting the portions of Ultimate Vision that appeared in the backs of most of the core Ultimate line, this zero issue recounts the re-creation of the construct the Vision. And while there is some action in it, the majority of the issue is a conversation between Vision and Sam Wilson. John Romita Jr.’s work is something that has always been hit or miss with me and with Ultimate Vision, it seems hurried and not as detailed as it could have been. But, if you happened to enjoy Warren Ellis’ Ultimate Galactus trilogy or just the Ultimate line in general and haven’t already read this issue, then this is probably a book for you.

The Punisher: Xmas Special One-Shot (Marvel Comics): Well, when Marvel puts out one of their Christmas specials, you know that at least you’re going to get a bit of fun. When they release a Punisher Christmas Special, the one thing that you know you’re going to get is blood. Lots of blood. In this, there is that (though most of it is left to the imagination), but what I was most surprised with was that Stuart Moore seemed able to walk the shaky line between humor and darkness. There are equal portions of both to be found and even though he has Frank making up a list of who’s been naughty and who’s been nice, which sounds corny, the idea works. The end result is yet another Punisher one-shot that people should check out.

Randy Lander Read and Thought:

Whisper One Shot (Boom! Studios): There are a lot of good ideas in this action one-shot, featuring a female mercenary in the midst of a drug deal/terrorist plot set in post-Katrina New Orleans. Unfortunately, I can’t escape the feeling that the ideas are having a shouting match with each other in this cramped 22-page format, and the story never quite gels as a result. Bonus points for the watercolor-esque coloring by Sunder Raj and for an intriguing protagonist, but the attempt to simultaneously tell a self-contained action story and an origin in a standard comic space falls on its face.

Batman/The Spirit (DC Comics): Pure fun, as Jeph Loeb and Darwyn Cooke serve up a meeting between Eisner’s Spirit and a Batman that’s most heavily influenced by Dini/Timm and Dick Sprang. Reminiscent of the fun of Byrne’s Captain America/Batman, as Cooke and Loeb throw a great majority of the rogues from both heroes into the mix, stir in their police allies and femme fatales and set the whole thing at a police convention in Hawaii. Cooke’s art is gorgeous, as expected, the villains are played really well (the Joker and Harley Quinn are particular standouts) and the difference between the dour Batman and the more lively Spirit is played up nicely. A really fun one-off and a promising opener for Cooke’s upcoming Spirit series.

The Immortal Iron Fist #1 (Marvel Comics): There’s a lot to like in this issue, including the opening art by Travel Foreman and Derek Fridolfs, some of the mood created by David Aja, the cool visuals of Iron Fist facing off with a surprisingly competent and not played for laughs HYDRA and a nice mixture of the kung-fu and corporate sides of Iron Fist’s character. On the other hand, Aja’s moody artwork, like Alex Maleev on Daredevil, doesn’t seem particularly apt for an action comic, and Iron Fist is quippy and smartass, which is more than a little annoying. Doctor Strange, the Punisher, now Iron Fist… not every character needs to speak like he’s in a Joss Whedon show. A solid B, but not up to the standards Brubaker has set on Daredevil and Captain America yet.