Heels, Heroes & Hardcovers: Looking at the first issue of the AEW/DC Comics crossover
Comics and wrestling obviously have a lot in common as colorful costumes, outlandish characters and fiendish schemes all cross over from the panel to the squared circle. The results can be really fun like wrestler “Hurricane” Helms (a big comic book fan) or the litany of comic-inspired gear worn by legends like Rey Mysterio.
When it goes the other way, however, the results can be… mixed.
Wrestling has tried many, many times to break into the world of comics. Origins of characters like The Undertaker, or WCW legends have found their way to the printed page. As wrestling fans grew up and started making comics, some of these books evolved into fun stories that can even add context to on-screen wrestling storylines.
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The latest wrestling entry into the comic book world was the crossover “event” DC x AEW. In this two-issue series, the heroes of the DC Universe teamed up with some of AEW’s top stars to save the universe. It should also be noted that AEW minority owner WBD also owns DC Comics, making this a tag team of corporate synergy like never before.
Here’s a review of the first issue.
DC x AEW #1 (DC Comics)
Written by Steve Orlando | Art by Travis Mercer
Our story begins at AEW x WAM: Forbidden Door. WAM is a multi-dimensional promotion called Wrestling Across the Multiverse, and Mercedes Mone is taking on the WAM Intergalactic Champion, Deceilia Starshame. Starshame is a legit DC Comics alien (although I’ve been reading comics for 35+ years and have never heard of her).
At any rate, Mone wins the belt (through nefarious means, including using “Radon” knuckles).
Starshame is so mad that she destroys the championship belt, and most of the arena with it, and then disappears. That brings in the Justice League. Batman and Hawkgirl figure out that the belt was made of Element X, the building blocks of all reality and it wasn’t destroyed. Rather, it was just shattered and sent into the unknown.
The Justice League decides that it’s up to them to find and reassemble the shards and without asking anyone else, Mone declares that since it’s her title, the AEW roster needs to help. The League agrees and everyone pairs off. Also, they all must be really good friends off tv because everyone seems to know who everyone is.
Now, before we get into these AEW/DC Hero missions, I should mention that virtually none of them really end. For example, Nightwing and Will Ospreay head to Bludhaven where they defeat a gang of very bland sub-level League of Assassins ninjas and teleport their shard back to Mr. Terrific in the Justice League Watchtower satellite.
After that, Ospreay tries a Storm Driver ‘93 on one of the ninjas and Nightwing freaks out, thinking he’s going to kill him. Before he does though, it’s over and we’re on to the next pair. So… maybe Ospreay killed a ninja?
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Anyway, Green Lantern Guy Gardner and Jon Moxley head to a random city where the Mutant Gang from The Dark Knight Returns has made a home. This is the only indication to me that anyone who has ever even read a comic was involved in this book. Gardner takes out the minions, while Moxley fights the Mutant Leader, winning with a Green Lantern-made barbed wire elbow to get a hold of their shard.
In “Limbo Town,” Hawkgirl and Hangman Page fight the puritanical Grim Magistrate and his army of undead inquisitors. They get the shard, teleport it away, but are about to be overrun. So, Hawkgirl produces two pistols that she had with her for reasons and gives them to Hangman who simply shoots them all in the face.
We switch gears to where Swerve Strickland and Green Lantern John Stewart are fighting magic dinosaurs conjured by the C-level wizard, Deimos. They play up that both Stewart and Strickland are ex-military and after they teleport their shard, Stewart Green Lanterns up a huge gun for Swerve to… shoot the dinosaurs? I have no idea.
The unlikely duo of Harley Quinn and Orange Cassidy wipe out the Royal Flush Gang, but after they send their shard back, Cassidy cops an attitude because Harley was thinking about giving the shard to The Joker. Zatanna and “Timeless” Toni Storm head to the mythical land of Staten Island to face F-level villain Johnny Sorrow. Zatanna uses her magic to make Storm appear, and Storm takes out Sorrow with one of her high heels, which tracks.
In the Underworld, Wonder Woman and Willow Nightingale fight against the Mother of All Monsters, Echidna and her slew of Skeletal Sentries. They get the drop on Wonder Woman, but Nightingale uses her lasso to subdue the monsters and claim their shard. Batman and Darby Allin head to Gotham’s underground where Joker takes a pot shot at Allin, calling him “Goth Robin.”
Across the river in Metropolis, Kenny Omega is battling his way through Intergang solo for some reason, when Bane shows up. Bane decides he wants the shard, so Omega uses some fun new technology to zap him and take him down. Then it’s revealed that Omega’s partner has been a Mother Box, which if you aren’t familiar with, is a sentient computer from the other side of the universe. How did he get it? Who knows.
Finally, Aquaman and Mone wrestle the last shard away from the monstrous undersea race known as The Trench. Mone helps out by using yet another big, unnecessary gun and she and Aquaman head to a temple where the shards of the belt are being re-forged into the Intergalactic Title.
As Aquaman is admiring the title, mentioning that it still needs a coating to hold in the power, Mone, true to form, betrays the Justice League and hits Aquaman from behind. She nails him in the back of the noggin with her new finishing move (the “Very Large Laser Gun”) to the head. Mone then straps the InteRgalactic title around the waist of her real partner in all this: Lex Luthor.
Final Impressions:
Artist Travis Mercer provides some really great art for this issue with clean crisp lines and bold layouts that casual and long-time comic readers will enjoy. Steve Orlando has written hundreds of comics and does his best with what he’s handed here, but I couldn’t for the life of me figure out why none of the fights ended, or what happened to anyone after the fact.
Also, where’s Superman? That guy fought Muhammed Ali, you’d think he’d be involved in this belt chase.
Throughout the book, “commentary” on the various adventures is provided by Excalibur and Booster Gold. Why? Beats me. They also don’t say who they are supposed to be commenting to or how, but it does tie things together a bit and help to sell the pairings by providing a little context.
For example, Excalibur wonders if Batman and Allin will make a good team because one is very methodical and the other is very impulsive. There’s a whole lot of “can they coexist?” energy throughout the book, which wrestling fans will dig.
Making comics involving “real” people is hard. Many comic companies have tried this and it’s resulted in horrible books. DC x AEW comes close to this, but because they are able to use wrestling characters instead of the “real” people behind them, it kind of works.
Wrestling characters are as over the top as comic characters, so why not? I think it was very cool that the comic versions of the wrestlers were pretty true to their on-screen personas, especially Mone.
Of course, there’s still issue #2 to consider…more on that soon.
Jeff Moss is a writer for F4W, but prior to that, he owned and operated a comic book store in Montreal, Canada. A lifelong comics fan, Jeff has also written, edited, and published comics and graphic novels since 2009. His current comics work includes digging through his dusty long boxes muttering “why do I own this?”
Jeff Moss is a writer, creator and developer in animation, comics and pretty much anything else he can get his mitts on. Pro Wrestling has always been his passion for reasons even he doesn't understand.