DC already has an anthology comic in DC
Universe Presents. That title has been hit and miss because the
characters and production crew change every few issues. National
Comics is attempting the same thing except instead of 3-5 issue
stories, they will all be single issues, each with a new
artist/writer team.
This will be a hard series to critique
since each issue will be a stand alone. So I decided just to focus
on the self contained story in issue one: “Eternity.” This
re-introduced the character Kid Eternity to the New DCU, this time
dropping the juvinle “Kid” part to his name. The old Kid
Eternity had the power to bring to life people from either history or
fiction (depending on who was writing comic book at the time) to help
him in his quest for justice. The pre DC relaunch version focused on
bringing back people from the dead to fight for him.
The new Eternity runs with the “raising
dead” version and twists it a bit. In this version, he and his
father were victims of a drive-by shooting. His father died but
Eternity returned to the land of the living and eventually found a
job in the police morgue. He found that if he touched a dead, he
could bring the ghost back for a very short period of time before
they returned to the afterlife. Unlike the previous version, this
time only Eternity can see and hear the person he raises. But he
uses the ghost to guide him so he can solve the mystery of their
murder before time runs out.
The first issue revolves around
Eternity raising the spirit of a shop owner who is the victim of a
shooting. The story hits the usual tropes about how Eternity's been
“acting strange” and is “talking to himself.” But what turns
out to be a by the numbers murder investigation takes a very
interesting turn that I do not want to spoil. The story also hints
at a larger mythology in which Eternity has a larger part to play
than simply solving murder cases.
Writer Jeff Lemire has been lauded in
the past few years in the comics industry. I have heard good things
about Sweet Tooth, though I have never read it. His most celebrated
work, Essex County, is an expansive graphic novel that I honestly
found a bit dull. But I think that his run on Superboy was just
getting somewhere when the relaunch cut it short. In the new 52, I
admired his work on Animal Man and Frankenstein, but they didn't grab
me.
Hence, I was so pleasently surprised by
National Comics #1. Lemire brought a fresh take on an often under
utilized character. The main problem with him in the past has been
that he was someone who essentially called on other, more heroic
people to do his fighting for him. Now, he has to be the active one
working on the direction of the powerless. Thematically, Lemire does
an excellent job of playing with the ideas of what life and death and
time and eternity mean all in the space of a 22-page comic. Eternity
helps other people with their unfinished buisness, but there is no
one to help him with his. He is a ghost of a man among the living.
And Lemire also ends the story on a cliffhanger that had me wanting
more. Artist Cully Hamner sets the mood and tone of the book without
being too distracting from the story.
I don't know if the other stories by
the upcoming writer/artist teams will be as good, but I highly
recommend National Comics #1
No comments:
Post a Comment