DC's Year of the Villain#1

It was a good day for Free Comic Book Day 2019 for my daughter Randie and I. The weather was warm but not too hot. The wait in line was not too long. An hour's wait certainly in a marked improvement over the 2 to 3 hour endurance sessions of years past.  

There's a bag of 2 dozen free comics that I'm still not through plowing through but I thought I would remark on one particular title.   

DC's Year of the Villain#1

This one is technically not a FCBD offering; it has a cover price of 25 cents. But the wonderful folks at Acme Comics (the best darn comic book shop anywhere!) included it in their FCBD bags. 

The book opens with a strong chapter by Scott Snyder and Jim Cheung which focuses on Lex Luthor going full on super villain. It starts with Lex invading the White House and commandeering the Oval House (look, if it pushes the fat moron who's there now out of th way, you go, Lex!).

And ends with a giant BABOOOM! at the top of Luthor's tower in Metropolis. 

The 2nd chapter brings writer Brian Michael Bendis and artists Alex Maleev together again for the first time as they tee off their big DC Comic event series, Leviathan. The story is billed as a Batgirl story which teams up Barbara Gordon with Green Arrow to take down old GA foe Merlyn.

But things do not go as planned as Batgirl winds up somewhere unknown confronted by an unknown masked shadowy person who wants to make Barbara a deal.  

We should be completely shocked that Mr. Unknown Masked Shadowy Person knows Batgirl is Barbara Gordon but this recent Batgirl re-design really does nothing to even remotely disguise Barbara's face. The close ups rendered beautifully by Maleev just underscores this. 

The story ends with Batman and Robin as Damian drops some theory that the unknown masked shadowy person behind Leviathan may be the Red Hood. Yep, former Robin Jason Todd.  

The book's final chapter is by James Tynion IV and Francis Manupal. This chapter picks up from the ongoing events of the Justice League title where the League has gone all cosmic to stop no less than the death of the entire universe.

The League is still dealing with the fallout of the destruction of the Source Wall and the inevitable doom that loss as unleashed.  Meanwhile, Lex Luthor's Legion of Doom is looking to capitalize on that and have secured a being of infinite power and scope, a goddess beyond the very concept of gods known as Perpetua.  

I've been following the current Justice League series since it launched last summer. I admire the big and expansive concepts that Snyder and Tynion are playing with; it takes something big to justify bringing the top guns of the DC Universe to come together and play.  But sometimes it feels like the concepts are almost TOO big, TOO expansive.  

But DC's Year of the Villain#1 definitely emphasizes that the baddest of DC's villains are up to big time stuff and, worst yet, their organized.