Katana #1
DC Comics, $2.99, color, 32 pages
Writer: Ann Nocenti
Artist: Alex Sanchez
It's early yet, but so far, so good.
The New 52 Katana shares her name and her possessed sword with her pre-New 52 predecessor, but that seems to be all. This new Katana comes to America for reasons unknown as yet, although the death of her husband seems to be a motivating force of some kind. She is in opposition to a group called the Outsiders, instead of that name being associated with a superhero group of which she is a member. She is not fully in command of the sword, nor is she fully a hero -- she shades to the grayer side of the scale.
So this is an all-new Katana, for all intents and purposes, but what little we do learn is interesting. Further, I have confidence in Nocenti, whose work I have enjoyed before.
The art is highly stylized, which can be awful, or it can be Batwoman. So far Sanchez is staying on the Batwoman side of it, quality-wise. Content-wise it is deliberately illustrative and design-heavy, emphasizing the Japan-ness and the other-ness of the character and her world. Some panels seem to be -- as Katana says of her new home in a hidden corner of San Francisco's Japantown -- "a passage back in time."
This is only a first issue, though, so there's still so much we don't know -- and so many ways it could go wrong. But the first issue is a smart issue, and a pretty issue. So far, so good.
Replies
Depending on how people react to the rest of this arc I might try out the trade when it comes out (or get some cheap back issues). I too like Ann Nocenti's past work, but I certainly did not like her efforts on Green Arrow, I thought the few issues I read were pretty bad.
I was confused by the first issue, but I'm going to hang in there on this one.