Miss America Comics #1 ~ I've never been that interested in Golden Age comics, but a good story well told is always welcome, and fortunately this one-shot delivers on that. The main feature, 'Shipyard Sabotage' (22 pages), is quite an engaging wartime superhero tale, starring Miss America, a kind of proto-Ms. Marvel without the energy blasts (still flight and super-strength though), investigating suspected saboteurs at work in, well, the title spells it out pretty well. A nice element of the tale is that it's essentially an all-female story, with Miss America up against Nazi supervillainesses, and the shipyard construction crew predominantly female as well. The story requires no prior knowledge of the superheroes of the time (not much of World War II either), so it's very accessible, and strikes a good balance between fun and action; the only oddity is that the cover and interior art can't seem to agree on whether she's a blonde or a brunette. The story's padded out to 'special' (i.e. US$3.99) length by a total of 17 pages of old reprints, mainly featuring the Whizzer - Miss America's fiance, we learn in the main story, but she's absent in the reprints, so I didn't do more than skim over them. As an anniversary one-shot, it's an acceptable bit of fun - if it were handled with similar skill (and without the padding reprints), I wouldn't mind seeing a WWII-era ongoing along these lines.
Hack/Slash #23 (Double Feature) ~ This is an odd issue - at first glance it looks like a one-shot, rather than patr of the regular run of the title, especially the first half of the double feature, an 11-page story featuring girl detective Cat Curio in what seems to be a standalone story (although elements of it seem set to tie into the ongoing storylines in Hack/Slash). It's a quirky little tale, a bizarre, sardonic mix of cutesy childrens' storytelling with the bloody brutality we're used to from this comic's cavalcade of monsters, very enjoyable in an odd kind of way. The other half of the issue sees Cassie and Lisa out on the trail of a dog-murdering snow blower, while the rest of the team spends their Christmas Day indoors - again it seems like a cute little standalone story, though with the main cast featured it quickly becomes apparent that this is a direct follow-up to the previous issue, with Cassie and Georgia's breakup featuring in several exchanges. As always there's the hilarious Lovebunny & Mr. Hell one-page backup story, this time featuring the pair having a run-in with the 'Fanatic Four', and there's also a two-page... well, I guess it's a preview, though it doesn't cite any upcoming title directly... called 'Mimetic Kinetic', which is an interesting pop philosophy kind of exploration, though unrelated to Hack/Slash so far as I can see, which is why I'm guessing it's promoing an upcoming book. Oh, and the back page is an ad for the 'Art of Hack/Slash' special coming up, with the tagline "Because we know you don't buy the comic for the story." I do actually, but point taken, the special looks like it'll be luscious.
JSA vs Kobra: Engines of Faith #1 ~ I love the JSA since its relaunch, so I'm always ready for more of it, and that's exactly what this is: a story featuring the current lineup, in a simmering battle against Kobra, a kind of apocalyptic terror organisation I haven't read about before, but they're presented in an interesting manner. It's the 'current lineup' bit that's important for me, because it means, on a small note, that Cyclone's around (not doing anything monumental, but I always like seeing her; as usual, though, the art forgets about her tanktop, it seems the poor girl can never get through an issue without an art glitch), but on a much larger note, Power Girl is in charge. That's probably my favourite aspect of the new Justice Society (and one which I'm occasionally disappointed isn't used more thoroughly in the main title - she seems to take a back seat to Flash and Green Lantern and Wildcat too often, but that's happily not the case here), and here - although Mister Terrific is the focus character for the story, revolving around his personal beliefs and his involvement in Checkmate as well as the JSA - Peegee gets her due, and is presented as a capable and shrewd leader, without sacrificing her essential daring, heroic nature. Even though the story does seem to involve the goddamn silly Anti-Life Equation, this is definitely a must-have on the strength of this first issue.
