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 Authority Prime #1 of 6, Crawlspace XXXombies #1, Foolkiller #1, Gotham Underground #1 of 9, Neozoic #1, Proof #1, She-Hulk #22, Velocity: Pilot Season #1, Warhammer 40k: Blood and Thunder #1, and What If? Planet Hulk One Shot.

Nick Budd Read and Thought:

Gotham Underground #1 of 9
Writer: Frank Tieri
Artist: J. Calafiore
Company: DC Comics

Yet another title that jumps aboard the DC Countdown bandwagon. Not exactly the kind of thing that I personally was looking for, but Gotham Underground is a mediocre book that focuses on the seedy underbelly of Gotham City, deals with the many disappearances of various villainous types, and stars many of Batman’s pantheon of villains, namely The Penguin. What’s there to like? Truth be told, it’s probably some of Frank Tieri’s strongest work. Building up The Penguin’s rep and having him still be the suave businessman that is a master planner was a nice throwback to the issue of Suicide Squad that he appeared in. Also, there are few good scenes with Bruce Wayne’s alter ego, Matches Malone. The downside? That would be some fairly corny dialogue and some at times, uninteresting looking art by J. Calafiore. All in all, not a bad start but it’s tie to the overall continuity heavy DC Universe is a major turn-off.

Foolkiller #1 of 5
Writer: Gregg Hurwitz
Artist: Lan Medina
Company: Marvel Max

Did I just read a Punisher knock-off book? That’s basically the message that was sent to my brain after setting this one down, and let me tell you, that’s a major bummer. The original Foolkiller series, written by Steve Gerber, had more going for it than having a man running around killing criminals and sticking playing cards to their heads. The stories had depth and originality to them. Those two things are what’s missing from this iteration of The Foolkiller and because of that, and the overall blandness and extreme focus on the brutality and sex side of things, this book’s something that can easily be skipped. In fact, the only thing that stood out was the nice and extremely dark Lan Medina art, which is just as good as his stuff has been on The Punisher Max and the always forgotten series District X.

Dave Farabee Read and Thought:

Neozoic #1
Writer: Paul Ens
Artist: J. Korim
Company: Red 5 Comics

Neozoic’s a fantasy/adventure comic with a pretty neat “What If?” hook: 65 million years ago, the asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs impacts the moon instead (very cool visual there from J. Korim). Cut to the present, and humans have evolved, but hunted and harried by the dinosaurs who never died off. Cities are walled off and protected by the best of the best warriors, taking their visual cues from anime and Japanese RPGs. Some ride horses, some ride small dinosaurs, but they all look cool and sport badass weapons. I can’t say I was wildly drawn to any particular character, but they’re a likeable enough group, and according to notes in the back, they’re glorified like athletes and rock stars by the people they protect. Should be an interesting enough concept to explore, but in the meantime the first issue is action and intro heavy. The highlight’s an extended sequence involving a T-Rex takedown, all building to a mystery cliffhanger. Pretty good stuff for fans of fantasy-style action, anime, and lost books like BattleChasers, and the art’s absolutely a cut above.

Crawl Space: XXXombies #1 (of 4)
Writer: Rick Remender
Artist: Kieron Dwyer
Company: Image Comics

Zombies + porn = what the fuh?! Right, but roll with it. The year’s 1977, and through a series of contrivances, the zombie apocalypse may be on the verge of breaking out a few miles from a porn shoot in Hollywood. Writer Rick Remender plays it all as violent camp, with dirty jokes about sex with zombies, wacky antics on the porn set, and a cast of sleazeballs ranging from drug-addled porn stars to vengeful mobsters to the ass-kicking dad looking to rescue his daughter from Hollywood’s wicked ways. The biggest problem: it’s just not that funny. I can respect (sorta) that Remender plays the ridiculous premise to the hilt, and Kieron Dwyer’s art is shockingly good (even the coloring is impressive), but the bar’s been raised on zombie humor after Shaun of the Dead, and XXXombies just didn’t make the cut for me. I also think I’m just not the audience for this kind of thing, though. I dig horror, but only the rare horror-comedy, so I’d still recommend that anyone amused by the premise of XXXombies or generally given over to zombie geekism give it a look. It is not what you’d call the usual zombie fare.

Dan Grendell Read and Thought:

Warhammer 40K: Blood and Thunder #1 (of 5)
Writers: Dan Abnett and Ian Edginton
Artist: Daniel Lapham
Company: BOOM! Studios

Well, the 40K boys are back with a look at another race- the Orks. The Orks are a bit like space Dreadnoks- they aren’t too smart, and exist mostly to destroy and fight. They also talk in a horribly stilted cockney accent that takes some getting used to. In this issue, an Imperial Guard force is overrun and a human officer is taken prisoner solely because he is covered in slime from a sewer and the Orks can’t figure out what race he is. Full of more mayhem and destruction than you can shake a stick at, it looks like this mini-series is going to follow the life of an Ork Nob (mid-level officer), and it’s dead on to the 40K mythos. A blast of a read.

What If? Planet Hulk
Writer: Greg Pak
Artists: Leonard Kirk, Rafa Sandoval, Gary Erskine, and Fred Hembeck
Company: Marvel Comics

A What If? that looks at the possibilities of Planet Hulk, Greg Pak wonders what might have happened if Hulk died on Sakaar but Caiera lived (hint: it isn’t pretty for Earth), if Hulk had landed on the proper peaceful planet (hint: Hulk and Banner don’t get along), and if Banner had landed on Sakaar instead of Hulk (hint: not good). All three stories were well done, though I felt that the Caiera living story would have been better served by a full issue’s worth of space to develop. Kirk’s art is beautiful as always, and Sandoval does a good job of storytelling. Overall, one of the better What If? issues to come out recently, and an enjoyable book.

Randy Lander Read and Thought:

Proof #1
Writer: Alex Grecian
Artist: Riley Rossmo
Company: Image Comics

Promising high concepts often lead to disappointment. So it’s a joy when promising high concepts, like “Agent Bigfoot of the FBI and his partner track down cryptozoological terrors” turns out to be witty, smartly constructed and well-illustrated, as is the case with Proof #1. Grecian and Rossmo pack a lot of story into these pages, telling the tale of Bigfoot meeting his new partner Ginger Brown, first from his point of view and then from hers. But that’s not all. There’s also the introduction of the mysterious agency they work for, a flash into Bigfoot’s daily life, a bit about what Ginger did before she joined up and the strange case that got her assigned to this new detail and the setup for the villain of the series. Grecian uses layered storytelling, with narrative captions, “Cryptoid” fact balloons and dialogue and it never feels too busy, and Rossmo’s art, with coloring by Tyler Jenkins, recalls the work of Leinil Francis Yu (at his best) along with less well known indie cartoonists I’ve enjoyed like Dave Crosland and Tom Williams. Imaginative, smart, funny and original, Proof is definitely a new series to check into.

She-Hulk #22
Writer: Peter David
Artists: Shawn Moll & Victor Olazaba
Company: Marvel Comics

Short version? If you’ve been reading She-Hulk, don’t stop, and if you’ve strayed a bit as I had, it’s time to come back. Peter David puts his own stamp on the character with a nice sidestep from lawyering to bounty hunting, and there are more than a few other twists as well, including the return of a familiar She-Hulk foe in a less familiar form that pays homage to Slott’s run. David’s trademark wisecracking works well for the character’s dialogue and narration, and the solidly paced first issue is a fun read on its own, with enough surprises to make the reader long for the next issue. Then there’s the art by Shawn Moll, late of DC’s Outsiders, who is showing off a style reminiscent of early Gary Frank with maybe a touch of Steve McNiven. Basically, the book looks great and reads great, and since it was off my radar, it wound up being a very pleasant surprise.

David Martindale Read and Thought:

Velocity: Pilot Season #1
Writer: Joe Casey
Artist: Kevin Maguire
Publisher: Top Cow

The latest in the Pilot Season series, Velocity, is solid to good, but never great. Joe Casey gives the unlucky in love heroine a very interesting and sympathetic personality and identity. She’s neither obnoxiously desperate or arrogant; she just a regular gal trying to find romance, but with a nice, witty speaking voice that keeps her from being dull. Casey does an above average job of intertwining that into a superhero storyline by staging an attack from a super villain during a first date. Unfortunately, without any prior connection to the character, there wasn’t quite enough in here to make me care one way or the other what happens to this character. Kevin Maguire does work here that’s quite nice. It’s fun, easy to follow, and expressive. Overall, I’d say this is probably the best of the Pilot Season offerings, but it’s still only solid to above average.

Authority Prime #1 of 6
Writer: Christos Gage
Artist: Darick Robertson
Publisher: Wildstorm

This one was way more fun than I expected. Gage, as usual, makes things exciting. Using multiple superhero teams, Lovecraftian Old Gods, and Killer robots that form up into bigger killer robots, he crafts one of the more action packed and fun superhero books I’ve read this year. It’s also quite accessible; you really don’t need to know much about the Wildstorm Universe or its characters to get the idea. Darick Robertson, while an excellent artist who does nice looking work on this issue, just doesn’t seem to have the right feel and tone for a fun superhero book. The contrast between the writer’s tone and the artist’s tone is stark and distracting at times. A very solid recomendation, definitely check it out.