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. Note: Sorry about the delay, folks… server difficulties postponed the posting until late afternoon.

This week we will cover Amazons Attack #1 of 6, Hunter’s Moon #1, Johnny Hiro #1, The Ride: Savannah One Shot, and Star Trek Klingons Blood Will Tell #1.

Nick Budd Read and Thought:

Amazons Attack #1 of 6
Writer: Will Pfeifer
Artist: Pete Woods
Company: DC Comics

Color me confused. Why? The main reason would be that the story here directly stems from the current story that’s going on in Wonder Woman, and if you haven’t been reading that, like me, the details of this issue don’t seem to make sense. Going beyond that though this issue is exactly what you would expect from a book called Amazons Attack, as the Amazons, for some reason, have decided to sack Washington DC and show the world of men who’s boss. Throw in the super villain Circe, the return of a long lost Amazonian and some nice artwork (especially the backgrounds) by Pete Woods and you get a book that really can only be called: Meh with a side of unnecessary, over the top violence. Suffering Sappho, indeed.

Dave Farabee Read and Thought:

Star Trek - Klingons: Blood Will Tell #1 of 5
Writer: Scott Tipton & David Tipton
Artist: David Messina
Company: IDW Publishing

Bit of a disappointment. I like the concept behind this miniseries - famous Federation/Klingon dust-ups as seen from the Klingon point of view - but the execution is on the dry side. This first issue covers the classic Trek episode “Errand of Mercy,” a fine, energetic episode with the Federation and the Klingons vying for control of a seemingly helpless, neutral planet. But the Klingon point of view of the comic lacks the show’s immediacy, being told as a historical lesson from a Klingon to his granddaughter. The story flies past key moments as if ticking them off, but gives them no room to breathe, to feel tense, to show a little wit. Like the slightly exaggerated but otherwise undistinguished artwork, it feels perfectly serviceable, but never inspired.

Dan Grendell Read and Thought:

Johnny Hiro #1
Creator: Fred Chao
Company: AdHouse Books

What a lovely surprise. I went into Johnny Hiro with no idea what to expect and Fred Chao rewarded me with a delightful story about a young man who tries to save his girl when Gozadilla attacks New York. Upbeat and cheery, with action, romance, and humor, there’s so much goodness here that it needs to take up the inside and back covers to fit. Chao’s art takes the best of manga and western influences and fuses them into a mature style all his own. Flashbacks to Johnny’s past accidents help build character quickly, and a scene where Gozadilla meets Super A-OK Robot had me grinning in remembrance of old television shows. Really, a beautiful piece of work all around.

Randy Lander Read and Thought:

Hunter’s Moon #1
Writer: James L. White
Artist: Dalibor Talajic
Company: Boom! Studios

Hunter’s Moon is at once intriguing and frustrating. Intriguing, because White goes deep in creating the characters of a man and his son, so that the audience will really care about them when the jeopardy starts. Frustrating, because the jeopardy starts on the final page of the first issue, and that makes for a less than satisfying opener. It doesn’t help that for all of White’s character development strengths, the characters and their relationships seem to change page by page. On one page, the father and son are fighting with each other, on the next they’re bonding like old buddies… a little variance related to their conversation is believable, the whiplash resulting from the constant changes of heart less so. But the biggest problem really is the pacing, especially given that a lot of the opening pages about the lead character and his business seem like self-indulgence, when a good comic book writer could have gotten all the character details done in a page or two. The artwork by Dalibor Talajic is solid, with an early Charlie Adlard vibe, and as foundation stuff goes, this is reasonably strong, but it desperately needed an editor to pare away at it and get more story in there so the first issue felt complete or a change in publishing strategy to publish it as an original graphic novel.

D3 (David Martindale) Read and Thought:

The Ride: Savannah
Writers:Doug Wagner, Steven Prouse
Artists: Mike Bear, Cale Ajoika, Emily Stone, Rob Grabe
Company: Image

The art in this book was a collaborative effort of the students of SCAD, Savannah College of Art and Design, and it looks like the school is doing a pretty good job. The art ranges from very solid to genuinely impressive. The book is broken into four chapters. The first three chapters tell one story, and the fourth is a standalone. Each chapter of the story has its own distinctive tone, and the artists chosen for each chapter have styles that fit the tone of each story well. Emily Stone and Rob Grabe (Chapters 3 & 4) are especially impressive. The writing felt disjointed and unfocused. The overall plot was more like a laundry list of occurrences than an ordered sequence of events following a logical arc, and the dialogue was wooden and clichéd at times. The flaws of the writing keep the book from being as good as it could be, but it is still worth the five dollar price tag. It’s a longer than average single issue with no ads at all, not to mention the proceeds go to a scholarship fund, so the price is quite reasonable. Check it out to preview some of the artists that could very well be rising stars in a few years.