newuniversal #1
Published by: Marvel Comics
Writer: Warren Ellis
Artist: Salvador Larroca
Colorist: Jason Keith
Letterer: Rus Wooton
Assistant Editor: Daniel Ketchum
Editor: Axel Alonso
Rated T+

24 pages

Rating: 3 out of 5

##

Premise: We find out a little more about this White Event as the story progresses. New word from Latvia in this issue, however.

Synopsis:

After a short recap, we get a peed inside the struggling researcher behind the government’s H.E.X. project. We quickly move to a resolution on the cliffhanger from issue one that doesn’t quite end as I expected. We then progress to a deep and interminable explanation of what the White Event was and what’s going on from a big-picture standpoint. We get a peek of Detective Tensen on the lam, and then get to finish up with a recall to the first scene and immersion into a very Marvel-esque government conspiracy to kill super-powered folks.

Review:

Sigh. I don’t hate this book. I actually kind of like it, but I want so much more. I want it to be faster and bigger. I want it to be Ellis’s run on The Authority.

But it’s not, and I have to live with that. We learn little more about the characters involved, and it’s somewhat difficult to see what is causing (especially in the case of Kenneth Connell) their behaving in a manner that seems so out of character now that they have these powers. But maybe this is what happens in this alternate universe when people get super powers. Maybe there’s not really an option to be good or bad - perhaps the power corrupts immediately.

It would have been nice to have a Latvian update. That was probably the most interesting developing story in the first issue. I know - all in due time.

The art is still fun to look at. The characters look like actors or people you’ve seen on the street (so far, I know I’ve seen Gene Hackman and James Cromwell). Except for Izanami. It just looks to me like Larroca is having trouble with her. She looks like a different person on every panel. To me, at least.

I don’t want to talk about the ads. We know Marvel sucks big-time on the amount of ads they put in, but I feel forced to bring it up again. Come ON Marvel. It’s bad enough that you’ve got two-thirds as many pages of ads as you do of story (Bowflex?!?), but enough with the hard card-stock inserts! I hate them when I’m reading Wired or anyother newsstand mag, but I especially despise them in my comic books. They make it harder to turn the page and harder to READ YOUR STUPID BOOK. I need three hands - two to hold the book open, and one to move the card out of the way of the page I’m reading. Sheesh!

Alright, I’m done.

I’m going to stick with this series, though. I know something good is coming. I can feel it. I mean, I like the story and the idea and everything. I just feel like it gets bogged down in places, and it’s not all making a lot of sense right now. But unlike those books that you just know will never work, this has a lot of untold promise running through the pages.