By: Paul Cornell (writer), Miguel Sepulveda (artist), Allen Passalaqua (colorist)
The Story: Call me superstitious, but that moon gives me the creeps.
The Review: In one of my reviews for S.H.I.E.L.D., I spoke about the appeal of secret societies, the shadowy group of specially selected individuals who watch over us from afar and chuckle at our ignorance. It seems DC wants its new universe to have an ancient, secret league of heroes right from the get-go, and so we have Stormwatch, one of many Wildstorm properties the publisher assumed a while back and only just now has found a use for.
Stormwatch certainly has the right makeup to handle the job of being DC’s premier team of unknown worldly guardians. Here’s a sample: the Engineer, a lady-android with a sarcastic streak; Jack Hawksmoor, controller of cities; Projectionist, mistress media manipulator; and Jenny Quantum, the spirit of the twenty-first century—whatever that means. That’s before we get to Apollo and Midnighter (Superman and Batman analogues), and good ol’ Martian Manhunter, who rocks a much more aggressive manner than the Zen psychic we’re used to.
But an interesting mix of characters and powers does not a great comic make. For that, you’ll need a writer who can craft plots capable of actually challenging such a formidable set of beings, and what better man to do so than Cornell? Anyone who read his run on Action Comics (prior to Reign of the Doomsdays, it goes without saying) knows this man can definitely whip up some serious sci-fi action in epic, mind-bending fashion.
And right from the first page, he puts our team in over their heads. Somehow, they get spread so thin that Harry Tanner, master swordsman (“I can slice cold fusion from the air, cut my signature on a retina.”), winds up having to fend against the entire living surface of the moon by himself. If that’s the kind of thing I can expect from this title on a monthly basis, consider me onboard.
Then you discover that whatever massive scourge is about to descend upon the planet, it’s not actually the foe we have to worry about. This creature itself has fled from an even more knee-shaking entity, and its sole mission now is to prepare other worlds for the inevitable doom to follow. Don’t hold out hope that it intends to do so with a gentle hand, though. You don’t write in a giant, intelligent, matter-animating eyeball just to let it hide in the moon.
All of these elements get carried by Cornell’s unfailingly sparkling dialogue. In fact, the only way to give it justice is to let it speak for itself: “Do we look like ‘super-heroes’? They’re amateurs. We’re the professionals.” “I said, the moon seems to be threatening the earth.” “I have advised Genghis Khan, Napoleon, and…that fat guy who ran Britain in that world war thing.” “With your help, I can kill every evil bastard on the planet. Interested…?”
These particular members of Stormwatch (formerly of the Authority) have always had specific character designs, and Sepulveda renders them perfectly. While they don’t leap off the page, each has a distinctive look that immediately draws your eye. Even more eye-catching are Sepulveda’s portrayals of the various other-creatures that populate the issue, especially the now semi-infamous lunar claw reaching for Earth. We can’t forget to mention Passalaqua’s colors, which strikes a great balance between dark and flashy, the dual tones of this title.
Conclusion: Even if you have no familiarity with the characters whatsoever, by the end of the issue, you’ll feel as though you’ve known them for years. The perfect vehicle for the former Dr. Who writer’s grand and zany ideas.
Grade: B+
– Minhquan Nguyen
Some Musings: – How great is it that one of the Projectionist’s media “hits” on Apollo is his feature in some woman’s slash fiction? Brilliant.
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