New 52 in Review - Resurrection Man

Resurrection Man is a character I knew nothing about, but I was excited that DC was pushing some of their lesser known characters and his power seemed interesting, so I picked this series up.  Not much more back story than that.  Spoilers below, reader beware!
My first complaint is that I hate the depiction of women in this series.  I HATE the Body Doubles and the panty shots that come with them.  The angel chick isn’t much better.  There are a lot of cheesecakey poses and clothing getting ripped.  And if they were characters we would never see again I might be able to get past it easier, but I know they will be back.  I didn’t find them to be interesting characters and it bothered me that we don’t seem to have any strong women who aren’t bimbos.

My other big complaint was with the pacing.  I knew nothing about this character and I was hoping for a bit of a more controlled start.  I wanted to learn about him and his powers.  I wish we had spent a few issues with just Mitch being drawn to some place and solving some problem to start with and then thrown in the crazy angels and demons and mysterious people from his past.  I know that there was a comic some years ago and I can’t help but think that many of these characters might be from there.  So if you were a reader then you probably really enjoyed getting thrown right back into the story.  But for me, it was a bit too much at once.  I didn’t even really feel I had a good grip on what kind of person Mitch is before they started throwing stuff in about his past and what kind of person he was before.  So basically I wish the first few issues had been more like the sixth and seventh issues, and then I might have been able to process the arc they put in the first five issues better.

I know it was probably only done to boost sales, but I kinda liked that the last two issues I read were set in Gotham and Metropolis respectively.  It makes sense to me that someone who claims to have powers from dying would end up in Arkham.  This is the kind of shared universe I enjoy, one where it is clear that these things are all happening in the same world without causing other books to get off track.  Neither Batman or Superman appeared in these issues.  Some of their supporting characters did (like Jimmy Olsen and a number of Batman villains) so it felt like Mitch was in those corners of the DCnU without having to wave the big guys around.

I do like the character and feel that he has an interesting power.  I just wish that his power was a bit more of the focus rather than these other characters and his soul and all.  Which, again, the sixth and seventh issues did very well.

I really don’t have much else to say about this one.  I was ready to give it up entirely while reading the first few issues, but it did get better.  I’m not sure if it will stay better though.  I felt the sixth and seventh issues were the best, but I don’t know if we’ll continue to tell stories like this or if this was merely a side quest.  Again, I’ll have to wait until I read more of the new 52 to decide, but this one is definitely on the bubble.