The Intergalactic Title is far more than a championship belt! This Big Galactic Belt is made of pure Element X—the most powerful metal in the universe! Ruptured in a post-match beatdown, the belt scatters across the DC Universe—but every single shard is a weapon that can rewrite reality itself. With the world at stake, the Justice League teams with AEW’s roster to crisscross the globe and recover the shards of the belt before DC’s worst villains use them to turn our world into their deadly playground. It’s the Justice League Elite as you’ve never seen them before—with Excalibur and Booster Gold calling the action! DC x AEW #1 delivers a team-up event that has fun with the concept.
Growing up in the 80s, I watched wrestling in its boom as larger than life characters took to the ring to tell stories and entertain. I stopped watching and then picked it up a bit again in college during the days of the NWO and DeGeneration X. I haven’t regularly watched any wrestling in quite some time but occasionally catch an episode of AEW or clips online. So, I have some familiarity with that world going into DC x AEW #1 a team up series that has its ups and its downs.
Written by Steve Orlando, DC x AEW #1 is an interesting debut issue as it rushes through its initial concept getting to the juicier part of the story which kicks off in the second issue. A belt is made of a powerful substance and the heroes of DC team up with the wrestlers of AEW to get that substance back. Orlando doesn’t drag that part out instead giving each team-up a few pages as the shards of the belt of gathered for the meat of the story that begins in the next issue. The debut issue is very much the set up of where it’s all going.
And, the comic is… ok. It feels like something you might get for attending an event with a ticket purchase, really playing to the fans of AEW more than anything else. The characters feel like themselves for the most part but that also means there’s some leaning on some of the verbal ticks they’re known for (how many times can Ospery say “bruv”) or teasing some of the AEW’s wrestler’s characters. You get a sense of each but overall, the initial team-ups are a bit odd in that it’s wrestlers fighting DC villains with the Justice League helping. Orlando doesn’t make the wrestlers super powerful but let’s face it, beyond using their acrobatics/athleticism to get the shard pieces, they’d likely get their asses kicked dealing with all of these villains. The short page count for each team also doesn’t give much time to really spotlight the characters, instead feeling like quick vignettes to get things rolling.
The art is ok. Travis Mercer has the Justice League and villains looking great and some of the AEW wrestlers look recognizable, there’s others I needed the comic to tell me who they where. With color by Andrew Dalhouse and lettering by Josh Reed, there’s a lot of action and overall some good interaction between the characters but overall the comic isn’t anything spectacular visually. And it’d be difficult to. AEW’s wrestling style is very dynamic in its moves and motion, something not easily done on the comic page. Watching the wrestlers “dance” with their moves in impressive gymnastic like moves in quick succession looks great on television. The comic here needed a few more recognizable moves to get the visual pops it is going for.
DC x AEW #1 is fun and entertaining, a nice distraction from the seriousness of the world. But, the comic is very much geared towards the AEW fans and feels a little like all of the product placement/crossovers from the WCW days. It can be fun and deliver something a little different.
Story: Steve Orlando Art: Travis Mercer
Color: Andrew Dalhouse Letterer: Josh Reed
Story: 7.0 Art: 7.0 Overall: 7.0 Recommendation: Read
DC Comics provided Graphic Policy with a FREE copy for review
Purchase: Zeus Comics – Kindle
