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 Action Comics #858, Biff Bam Pow #1, Countdown Lord Havok And The Extremists #1, Crime Bible The Five Lessons Of Blood #1, DC Infinite Halloween Special #1, Midnighter Armageddon #1, Necromancer Pilot Season #1, Primordia #1, Special Forces #1, Tales Of The Fear Agent 12 Steps In One #1, and X-Men Messiah Complex One Shot.

Nick Budd Read and Thought:

X-Men Messiah Complex One Shot
Writer: Ed Brubaker
Artist: Marc Silvestri
Company: Marvel Comics

Like my fellow reviewer stated in his full review of this issue, it really does feel like the 90’s X-Men crossovers have come back from the dead. Is that necessarily a bad thing? Not exactly, as Messiah Complex reads very well, offers up a fairly interesting conflict, and is overall a sincerely readable book. The only complaint of the issue? The art just doesn’t work. Silvestri’s pencils feel slightly stagnant during some key scenes and overall feels too overdone in others. That said, Messiah Complex may be the best big X-Event that we’ve seen in awhile, and if you’re an X-Men fan, it’s almost a must buy.

Primorida #1 of 3
Writer: John R. Fultz
Artist: Roel Wielinga
Company: Archaia Studios Press

A standard fantasy, nothing special, with some nice looking art by Roel Wielinga. That, in a nutshell, sums up Primordia pretty well. The gist of the story however, is one that’s a simple one and involves two infants who are found and raised by a member of The Wood, a Satyr named Philometra. As they grow, it’s obvious that they are more than mere mortals as they exhibit a connection to magic and are slowly drawn to either the light and the dark sides of magic. It’s not something that we haven’t seen before, which is a strike against it, but if you’re in the mood for a solid fantasy, Primordia isn’t a bad choice.

Dave Farabee Read and Thought:

Lord Havok and the Extremists #1 of 6
Writer: Frank Tieri
Artist: Liam Sharp
Publisher: DC Comics

It’s like DC wants to lose to Marvel. Served up for your displeasure, we have 22 pages of the umpteenth iteration of superhumans taking over the world and generally being corrupt. The smartest it ever gets is cliched lines like “one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter,” but most of the time it’s just an extended blur of unlikeable characters who, apparently, will play some role in DC’s flagging Countdown. Diagnosis: extreme pain.

The Necromancer #1 - Pilot Season
Writer: Joshua Ortega
Artist: Jonboy Meyers
Publisher: Top Cow Productions

I think I’ve read three of these Top Cow “pilot” specials for the site, and honestly, if these were the pilots I had to choose from for a TV season, I’d pray for a writers strike. Turns out Necromancer’s the story of a Buffy-esque teen girl with nebulously defined mystic powers. She’s a pawn in the battle of good versus evil. She’s drawn in a style halfway between a J. Scott Campbell babe and a Joe Madureira babe. Her adventures won’t interest you.

Dan Grendell Read and Thought:

Crime Bible: Five Lessons of Blood #1 (of 5)
Writer: Greg Rucka
Artist: Tom Mandrake
Publisher: DC Comics

It’s Renee Montoya on her first big outing as the new Question, and she’s investigating the Crime Bible and the religion of crime introduced in 52. There’s some cool ideas here, as Renee checks out a Crime Bible debunker who may be more than he appears, and Mandrake’s artwork delivers the impact of the key scenes with a strength that I found a bit chilling. I think maybe titling this something like The Question: Crime Bible might have been a better way to draw people to it, to let people know who the star is, but other than that I think it was well done and I’m curious to see how the mini-series develops.

Special Forces #1
Creator: Kyle Baker
Publisher: Image Comics

Taking his cue from an actual event in 2006 where army recruiters enlisted an autistic teen, Kyle Baker has produced a savage commentary on what could happen if a recruiter has two choices- meet a quota or go back to Iraq. Desperate to avoid returning to the warzone, the recruiter does whatever he must to fill uniforms, regardless of suitability, and the result is a team of misfits that just don’t cut it. Brutal and gory, Baker pulls no punches in his condemnation of recruiters who lie and break rules to put bodies in the field. Probably Baker’s most controversial work since Truth, and I dug it.

Randy Lander Read and Thought:

Biff-Bam-Pow! #1
Writer/Artists: Evan Dorkin & Sarah Dyer
Company: Slave Labor Graphics

Dorkin and Dyer have contributed to any number of well-liked animated series, and created any number of beloved indie books like Action Girl, Dork! and many more. I accord them a certain basic respect as creators, even if it sometimes takes a while (in the case of this book, a couple of years) to produce anything for comics. And if you think all of that respect up front is to cushion the blow of me saying that I didn’t really like Biff-Bam-Pow, you’re right. Aiming for all-ages wacky and old school superhero, Biff-Bam-Pow instead hits the kinda boring bullseye. There’s great cartooning, and the whole thing has a surprisingly sincere, fun vibe that contrasts with Dorkin’s usual acidic wit… but I found that I missed the more acidic, adult tone of Dork!

DC Infinite Halloween Special #1
Writers: Dan Abnett, Andy Lanning, Paul Dini, David Arquette, Cliff Dorfman, Peter Johnson, Matt Cherniss, Marc Bernardin, Adam Freeman, Tony Bedard, Peter Tomasi, Kal-El Bogdanove, Steve Niles, Steve Seagle, Mark Waid & Dan Didio
Artists: Trevor Hairsine, Kevin Conrad, Dustin Nguyen, Bernard Chang, Kelley Jones, Eric Battle, Sandra Hope, Sebastian Fiumara, Peter Snejbjerg, Jon Bogdanove, Dean Ormston, John Paul Leon, Ryan Sook, Ian Churchill, Norm Rapmund, Tony Daniel & Jonathan Glapion
Company: DC Comics

There are fourteen stories in this special. I had a bad feeling when it opened with Croc talking about murdering an innocent guy on page one, and didn’t have a much better feeling when I realized that the Arkham inmates telling spooky stories was the framing device. Oh, great, more murder and carnage flavored DC Universe… Happy Halloween everybody! The stories inside didn’t give me much cause to change my mind. There’s terrific art throughout, most notably from Kelley Jones, Peter Snejbjerg, John Paul Leon and Ryan Sook, and Waid’s story of the Flash’s grandfather is a pretty touching little piece that makes perfect use of its limited space. But writing memorable stories this short is a tough job, and even the assemblage of talent here isn’t really up to it, for the most part. Forgettable, bland and in some cases even unreadable, even the last minute appearance of Resurrection Man and a twist ending involving a cult favorite DC spooky character can’t salvage this bloated, expensive, disappointing comic.

Tales of the Fear Agent Twelve Steps in One
Writers: Rick Remender & C.B. Cebulski
Artists: Eric Nguyen & Tommy Ohtsuka
Company: Dark Horse

It’s strange to see a series with one writer vary so much in quality. The first Fear Agent series, running twelve issues, wasn’t always great but when taken together, it was a very good read. The latest Fear Agent miniseries, exploring the origin of lead character Heath Huston, was terrific, the strongest arc of the series thus far. And then there’s this one shot, which can’t seem to decide whether it wants to be melodrama, dark comedy or old school sci-fi action, and instead serves up a somewhat mediocre mash-up of all three. Huston’s motivations swing wildly and unbelievably (even for a broken-hearted drunk), and there’s never any point at which I cared at all what happened to any of the characters. And since we know that Heath survives, that drains more than a bit of tension out of his suicide attempt. Cebulski’s backup tale is more clearly comedy, but his version of Heath reads more like a swaggering Han Solo than the damaged character Remender has presented previously. Fun, but inconsistent with the character as presented. Both tales do feature exceptionally nice artwork, though, from Nguyen’s detailed work that fits in nicely with the look Moore and Opena have given the book previously to Ohutsuka’s manga-influenced, cartoony and fun work on the backup. It’s just that great art can’t salvage merely OK stories, and this one-shot doesn’t compare favorably to the Fear Agent that has gone before, or hopefully the Fear Agent books to come.

David Martindale Read and Thought:

Action Comics #858
Writer: Geoff Johns
Artist: Gary Frank
Publisher: DC Comics

Wow… that was cool. Gary Frank is just amazing on this issue. It’s by far some the coolest art I’ve ever seen on a Superman book, and Dave McCaig’s colors really help a lot. Gary Frank really sells the characters’ facial expressions and body language. There are a few moments of wonder and a few moments of disappointment that are just palpable. His action sequences and storytelling are strong, but it’s the tone and human element that he brings that really makes his work stand out on this issue. Geoff Johns does some fun things with the time travel element. Not only do we get a fun story in the future featuring the Legion, we also get a glimpse into Superman’s high school past. In that flashback, Johns really nails the teenage Clark Kent. He’s a geeky downtrodden kid that doesn’t truly grasp his potential and his future. It’s worth buying for the art alone, but Geoff Johns does a pretty impressive job himself. Absolutely, positively recommended. Go get it now.

Midnighter: Armageddon #1
Writer: Christos Gage
Artist: Simon Coleby
Publisher: WildStorm

A pinch of action and a splash of doom. This issue finds Midnighter out of time trying to prevent a bleak dystopian future. It’s not a terribly new idea, and it feels a bit anticlimatic because of it. The writing and art are both above average with some very nice storytelling from Coleby and some well scripted action sequences. Unfortunately, that’s not enough to make this book stand out of the crowd. This one’s for only the most dedicated Authority fans.