The first thing to say about Wednesday Comics is, what a brave and wonderful thing DC has attempted here!I'm not convinced it will succeed, mind you, but what a terrific idea, resurrecting the classic large Sunday Newspaper Comic format in the modern age.
The 16-page issue features 15 different one-page adventures starring some of DC's biggest and most obscure characters. You would expect to see Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman, but what a treat to see Sgt. Rock, Kamandi and Adam Strange included!
Each creative team has its own take on the character involved: some classic, like the Joe Kubert story about Sgt. Rock or the Metal Men story by Didio and Lopez; some are original takes, like Pope's Adam Strange or Caldwell's Wonder Woman; some are nostalgic, like Gaiman and Allred's delightful Metamorpho and Gibbons and Sook's Kamandi; and some are just plain fun, like Kerschl and Fletcher's Flash and Palmiotti and Conners' Supergirl.
There are no beefs with the art, although the newsprint reproduction tends to favor the cleaner styles (like Lopez, Kubert and Conner) while making some of the others difficult to sort out (like Pope, Caldwell and Galloway's Teen Titans).
The story is where I would expect some of these strips to struggle, since the writer only has the space of a four-page comic to work with every week - but in reality, they only have one big page to get things rolling.
Some of the strips succeed in this, like Superman, Batman and Hawkman, while others fail to get much traction.
Special kudos to the Kamandi strip - it doesn't really evoke the original Kirby style, but it does the best job of capturing that Sunday Comics feel on a Wednesday afternoon.
So, a great first effort - even at $3.99, I'll be back next week for the latest installment.
Grade: B+
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