After listening to the Don't Miss Podcast this week I thought that I'd give The Shade a try and see how good this book is. I've heard how good Starman but I've never read it. But since this is the new DCU and number one issues are supposed to be new reader accessible I figured I'd be alright. After reading the issue I was mostly confused. As far as I can tell The Shade's powers are to control the shade or maybe just a general power over darkness. Maybe there will be an actual explanation next issue? So Shade talks to the new Starman for a little bit and they both talk about how terrible everything is for them. Then a pretty well-armed private investigator is introduced in a series of captions that get the exposition out of the way by presenting multiple choice questions. This guy kills everyone else near him. Then the Shade has a post-coital conversation with a girl. She kind of brushes him off and then she leaves. Then the Shade starts thinking about how much he liked Opal City. Then Deathstroke shows up and cuts him up pretty good. Hopefully his darkness powers can regrow limbs and his head head (or at least help reattach) because otherwise this would be a pretty short-lived series. I'm down on the story but I have to say that I really like the Cully Hamner art. It was really why I bought the issue and it's why I'm going to buy the second one. It turns out the story is just good enough that I'll give it a chance to really take off before I cut bait and write this series off as a loss.