About Heroes

This Review Was Submitted by Knightwingbk:

Writer: Greg Rucka, Nunzio DeFilippis, & Christina Weir
Artists: Cliff Richards & Dan Green

So, since when does Greg Rucka need guest writers on his baby bundle at DC? Let alone two? This issue is not a Checkmate issue, it is a Suicide Squad issue under a banner of Checkmate. The first 5 pages are standard Checkmate political maneuvering, but the rest of the book follows Mirror Master and Icicle as they plan a mission to get back at Amanda Waller. Two words. Who cares? What happened to Alan Scott quitting Checkmate? The selection of a new White Queen? The Black Queen's Knight that was selected last issue? What happened to all of these plotlines? Thrown away. Maybe in another four issues. I was going to drop this book, but I gave it another shot with this issue. I want my three bucks back because this is not the Checkmate I was raving about 4-5 issues ago. If Greg Rucka wants to keep this series alive, he needs to keep his audience around by giving them a book that is interesting. Checkmate was interesting, until it decided to quit being Checkmate and bring in Suicide Squad. Teen Titans tried to rejuvenate Doom Patrol in its first arc OYL, and it did that okay because it tied characters you cared about to the team. That does not happen here. Suicide Squad is all villains, and the only one I'd ever read was Mirror Master, everyone else I had never heard of. So how do I, as a Checkmate reader gravitate to characters who want to get even to a character that I already do not like? Amanda Waller is the villain in the Checkmate book, so to try to make us feel bad for her is ridiculous.

Oh, the art. Oh the art. Remember that New Avengers arc with Xorn? Badly drawn by Mike Deodato Jr? This issue of Checkmate is a bad imitation of bad Mike Deodato Jr. It's even colored the same. Badly. If you were to put this book next to the other previous issues of Checkmate, it would not match it visually. The character's faces lack detail, and sometimes their entire bodies are in shadow, like the artist was too lazy to draw them. Some may argue that "regular penciller" Jesus Saiz's faces and art is not that detailed, but at least his art has a certain pizzazz, it jumps off the page at you. Speaking of Jesus Saiz, where is he? He has done 4 issues of Checkmate total. Four out of 6, he's behind Cully Hamner on Blue Beetle for most issues with a guest penciller on a new series. The two biggest ongoing series to come out of IC, Checkmate and Blue Beetle (excluding Wonder Woman & Flash) can't keep a regular artist. C'mon DC! If you are going to launch a series, can we please get an artist to do 15 issues to get the series going? That is 3 full story arcs to get the book on its feet, then you change artists, but not on the second arc. I'm tired of artists getting on a book for only six issues! It seems like Marc Bagley and John Romita Jr are the only artists who can do more than 6 issues on a title nowadays, but that is another subject for another day... This issue of Checkmate, D.