Review of DC Comics’ New 52: Men of War

The next issue in DC’s reboot that I decided to pick up was Men of War. As with most of these comics, I was entirely unfamiliar with it and all of its characters. A quick Google search taught me that I’m apparently not the only one unfamiliar with this comic, that was first released in 1939 as All American Comics.

Two for the price of one
As the title suggests, the story focuses on soldiers. However, Men of War doesn’t seem to tell one particular story. Instead, this thirty page issue contained two stories, both of which ended with cliffhangers. The first tells the story of Sgt. Rock, who is recruited into a special ops team that goes behind  enemy lines and encounters a weird phenomenon. The second story is about navy seals fighting a sharpshooter in an abandoned city.

Both of these stories are short and propel a reader right into the middle of the action. While certainly entertaining thanks to the blazing guns and constant action, both stories confused me enough not to hold my interest. Perhaps this is caused by being a first time reader, but I would expect more from a reboot. The annoyingly unclear narrative in the first story didn’t help. Nor did the happy chatter in a war situation in the second story.

A grim story
This is the worst first issue I’ve read so far. There’s not much substance and the writing didn’t do anything to engage me. The art is grim and gray, which may fit with a situation of war, but didn’t fit with the happy dialogue in Men of War. Furthermore, the art made it hard to distinguish details or even the faces of different characters. Instead of a character driven story like most other comics, this is a story driven comic — which probably would have worked, if it wasn’t for the bad writing.

Will I buy the second issue?
I won’t. This isn’t my kind of story. It was boring, confusing, and a waste of my time.

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