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 Alien Pig Farm #1 of 4, Bizarre New World #1 of 3, Chucky #1 of 5, Dark Xena #1, Hellboy Darkness Calls #1 of 6, World War Hulk Prologue World Breaker One Shot, Marvel Illustrated Last Of The Mohicans #1, Supernatural Origins #1, and Ward of the State #1.

Nick Budd Read and Thought:

Supernatural Origins #1
Writers: Peter Johnson & Geoff Johns
Artists: Matthew Dow Smith & Phil Hester
Company: Wildstorm

Having never seen the Supernatural television series, this prequel issue to the main series feels slightly lukewarm overall. The main story is about a man’s need to uncover the mysterious, Machiavellian and no doubt supernatural workings behind his own wife’s death, while at the same time keeping his two sons safe from harm. The detective-light riff is nice but for the most part, the ideas here don’t seem to stray out of that fabled and ultimately common, done before, territory and only manages to excel to any extent with the five page back up story, beautifully drawn by Phil Hester. It’s perfectly readable, standard fair stuff that I’m sure would read better if your a fan of the show. If you aren’t though, it’s most certainly skippable.

Chucky #1
Writer: Brian Pulido
Artist: Josh Medors
Company: Devil’s Due Publishing

Well, ’80s horror, Chucky and Brian Pulido fans all should be pleased by this one as it returns the titular character to some semblance of normal continuity, picking up ties to all of the movies, but mainly focusing on the the ever so popular Bride of Chucky. The main focus of the issue, as with every other Chucky story, is his need to kill and seek revenge on those who put and kept him in his silicone cell. I would like to say that even for me it could accomplish those simple ideas well enough but really…To be perfectly honest…It was boring. There’s only so many times you can see a doll chop of some poor, unsuspecting woman’s head while spouting some corny line, and find it enjoyable, and that time has long since passed for me. Boring with solid art leads this to be a book to skip.

Dave Farabee Read and Thought:

Marvel Illustrated: Last of the Mohicans #1
Writer: Roy Thomas (adapted from James Fenimore Cooper)
Artist: Steve Kurth & Denis Medri
Company: Marvel Comics

Last of the Mohicans is surely one of the foundations of the American action-adventure paradigm, but this first chapter of Roy Thomas’s adaptation is a reminder that while James Fenimore Cooper’s work is seminal…it’s not particularly well written. Maybe faithfulness to the source material isn’t always a virtue, with Michael Mann’s liberal film adaptation of Mohicans in the 1990s being the most standout take. Artist Steve Kurth has definitely improved from his days on G.I. Joe for Devil’s Due, veering more towards an illustrator’s style and, at least to my eye, a reliance on photo-reference. It looks good, but it lacks the energy needed to make Cooper’s story sing. The back-up serial, drawn with a style more reminiscent of Disney, is more dynamic, but still loses loses momentum over a few too many speech balloons and narrative captions. Long story short: stick with the movie.

Dark Xena #1
Writer: John Layman
Artist: Noah Salonga
Company: Dynamite Entertainment

Dynamite’s jumpstart of the Xena license has produced some fun titles in recent months, but this latest, explaining how Xena returned from the dead after the series’ finale, flounders a little. Maybe it’s that the art isn’t quite as good as Fabiano Neves’ early issues, but it also struck me that it just felt more “comic booky” and less cinematic than previous issues. Same writer, though, so go figure. Short version of the story is this: Gabrielle goes bargaining for Xena’s life with H.P. Lovecraft’s most famous creation, Cthulhu (called C’Thulon here), and ends up getting a raw deal (as you might expect). It’s big stuff for the characters, but probably needed more gravitas to really pull it off.

Dan Grendell Read and Thought:

Hellboy: Darkness Calls #1 of 6
Writer: Mike Mignola
Artist: Duncan Fegredo
Company: Dark Horse Comics

Hellboy is back, and it’s been worth the wait. I was a bit trepidatious about someone other than Mignola drawing this series, to be honest. I felt the same way when Guy Davis was announced as B.P.R.D. artist, though, and he turned out to be perfect, so I went into this curious to see what Fegredo would do and he really knocks it out of the park. I should really just stop worrying. Dave Stewart does his usual spectacular job on colors, making everything look even creepier. As for the story, looks like its focused on witches this time around, with the return of Hecate and some truly freaky new characters. Hellboy probably should have kept track of where he left his horns after he broke them off in Hellboy: Wake the Dead, too. Looks like that’s gonna bite him on the ass. It also took me until now to realize that Hellboy seems to be more aimed towards folklore stories, and B.P.R.D. deals more with Lovecraftian stuff. Nice way to give them each an identity.

Randy Lander Read and Thought:

Alien Pig Farm 3000 #1 of 4
Writers: Todd Farmer, Steve Niles & Thomas Jane
Artist: Don Marquez
Company: Image Comics

Aliens vs. rednecks. It sounds like an easy, funny premise. To give credit where it’s due, the team of Alien Pig Farm doesn’t go for the easy, obvious jokes. The bad news is, they don’t replace these easy, obvious jokes with anything interesting of substance. A random starship chase, a random car chase, a tired old “we’ve gotta get out of this town, darling” subplot and a last-page reveal of the aliens leads to a first issue that is slow-paced and dull. Marquez offers up solid enough artwork, although even that doesn’t always clearly convey what’s meant to be going on, and lacks the manic energy to be found in the pulp fiction style covers. Fun premise, boring execution.

Ward of the State #1 of 3
Writer: Christopher Long
Artist: Chee
Company: Image Comics

Ward of the State is one seriously messed up book. Long has come up with an original concept, that of a foster mother training her kids to be contract killers, and along with artist Chee, he puts together a darkly funny and seriously disturbing tale. There’s some really nice character work in showing the ways these kids deal with their dysfunctional situation, and Chee gives the whole thing a slight ’70s vibe that fits its throwback horror/exploitation roots. There’s also some clever storytelling moments, such as the “Christian sends his regards!” shocker and the flashback panels to the kids’ training when they’re being interviewed by a social worker. Basically, Ward of the State could easily be a lost feature from the recent Grindhouse flick, and I mean that as a compliment.

D3 (David Martindale) Read and Thought:

Bizarre New World #1 of 3
Writer: Skipper Martin
Artist: Christopher Provencher
Company: Ape Entertainment

“What if normal people got superpowers?” The question seems to be the in-style concept these days. While it is not unique in its hook, Bizarre New World does have a more fun approach to the idea. Rather than dealing with the socio-political fallout from people suddenly gaining powers, the book deals with the giddy joy an everyday schlub experiences when he discovers he can fly. It’s fun, endearing, and carries a very reasonable price tag for a 48 page book with no adverts. Unfortunately, the art is a bit lacking in polish, and the dialogue feels unnecessary and expository at times. A fair offering; give it flip through.

World War Hulk Prologue World Breaker
Writers: Peter David, Chris Giarrusso, Greg Pak
Artists: Al Rio, Lee Weeks, Sean Phillips Chris Giarrusso, Takeshi Miyazawa
Company: Marvel Comics

This prologue to World War Hulk is a compilation issue featuring three stories by a variety of creators. The first story actually feels like a prologue, but the second and third do not. The first story really gives the reader all the information he needs to jump into WWH. It explains the Hulk’s position as well as the Illuminati’s position without feeling like a recap. There’s even a nice little action sequence to kick things off. The second story is a bit of a comedy piece with what appears to be the chibi Illuminati debating on whether to send chibi Hulk into space or not. It feels a bit strange to see a comedy story told with childlike representations of the heroes dealing with such a dark scenario. The third story feels mostly extraneous unless you already know who Amadeus Cho is and why he’s important. Even after finding out, I still felt the story was extraneous. Fortunately, the third story features some great art from Miyazawa, so I really can’t object too much. A very readable introduction to WWH; pick it up if you haven’t read Planet Hulk but plan on reading WWH.