The Shield #1 review

DC's Red Circle launch concludes with The Shield. It's your standard 'injured military man gets a special suit' story, with loads of military speak which I found unintelligible and offputting. J Michael Straczynski gives us seven pages of Afghanistan action which I was just willing to end, so we could get our hero, Lt Joel Higgins, into costume.

To be honest, I'm not a fan of military superheroes. Steel, Commander Steel, Magog . . . I'm just not interested. I bought this issue in the hope of being pleasantly surprised and to find out about the Red Circle concept. Well, we got a little more information on the latter - it's very Disney - but as for the former, nope, the Shield hasn't grabbed me so far. Higgins comes across as a passive character, and - big surprise - there seems to be a military conspiracy.

The art is by Scott McDaniel and Andy Owens, whose faces are always a tad too blocky for my taste. But lots of comic book fans do like their work, and there is a terrific splash revealing the Shield for the first time. The art team on the regular book is Marco Rudy and Mick Gray, so I'll take a peek to see how the Shield looks under them.

So that's four specials in four weeks, and it's been an entertaining ride. I'm certainly on board for more Hangman and Web and, happily, they're sharing a book. As for the Shield/Inferno title, I'll likely pass.