Reading Comics 183 "Bloodlines 2016, Empress"

I was in another comics shop recently, and picked up a few things...

Bloodlines #1 (DC)
Watch out!  The '90s are starting to receive the nostalgia treatment.   Are you ready for that?  Among the things I never expected to see resurface was the Bloodlines generation, the new superheroes DC unveiled through its 1993 annuals.  This was the most recent new character initiative undertaken by the company, but most of the superheroes that resulted became hapless victims to the perception that the whole event was a shameless attempt to mooch off the Image Comics momentum then still sweeping the medium.  So a lot of great characters who didn't deserve to be forgotten were.  I'm happy to report that the best of them (sorry, Hitman) is the first one to return.  In this debut issue of the mini-series finally rectifying the gross injustice done Bloodlines, Loose Cannon returns.  This was a kind of Incredible Hulk superhero whose human guise was a guy who got around on crutches.  His early stories were written by none other than Jeph Loeb.  This new version is a teenager in high school, but he remains a blue goliath in his transformed state.  I was both eager and leery about Bloodlines when I first heard of it, dreading that it would be kind of exactly what everyone thought the original version was, something quickly dashed off and without the necessary quality to justify it.  But seeing Eddie Walker as the lead character quickly allayed my concerns, and writer J.T. Krul nailed his new iteration.  Krul is a DC veteran at this point, and this marks his homecoming.  I last wrote about him way back in 2011 in the Brightest Day era of Green Arrow, which was equally surprisingly good stuff.

Empress #1 (Icon)
Mark Millar is constantly generating new ideas for his Millarworld imprint and snagging some of the best artists out there to draw them.  So it was only a matter of time before he went knocking at Stuart Immonen's door.  Actually, this is their second collaboration, as Millar was tasked with the dialogue of Immonen's later Superman issues, so this is kind of full circle for both of them.  The concept is that 65 million years ago a different species of intelligent people ruled Earth, and that the ruler himself is a douche, and so the woman he convinced to give up her life (I mean, completely; he said she couldn't even bring it up) to rule at his side decides she's had enough, so she finally runs away.  This is a full-blown sci-fi epic in a different way from Millar's previous Starlight, a bit more like Saga.  Immonen is coming off Marvel's Star Wars, so anyone who is most familiar with him there will feel right at home.  It's good stuff, and Immonen is once again going for that more minimalist (though appropriately grand) style that I loved so much from his Superman, after years toiling at Marvel with a more hard-edged one that presumably someone thought he should adopt to keep up with expectations.  But clearly his work stands on its own.