Newuniversal #4

This series tricked me. When I picked up the first issue, I thought it was going to be about ordinary people from a realistic world in extraordinary situations. Turns out, it's actually a remake of a raft of Marvel comics from the '80s which all came out under the heading of New Universe, and all featured - you guessed it - the ubiquitous 'brightly-coloured namby-pambies'. By the time I figured this out I'd bought the next two issues, and was actually quite enjoying it for the most part, so I figured I'd stick with it till at least the end of the first story arc, and this issue in particular made me glad I did.

This issue focuses heavily on Ken Connell, a redneck teenager who has been given the power of the 'starbrand', making him basically Superman, with some added explosive/telekinetic mindpowers. We see him start to come to terms with his newfound powers, as well his grief over his girlfriend who died in the incident in the first issue where he gained those powers. This guy looks quite a bit like Sawyer from Lost, and also seems to be pretty dense, taking the whole comic to figure out something that attentive readers will have easily guessed by the halfway point. Also thrown into the mix are some pretty cool time travel and alternate universe bits (which are like crack to sci-fi fans) - and a rather laboured Star Trek reference.

Ellis's dialogue in this book is not bad, and manages to adequately convey the snowballing urgency of the events taking place. My overall impression of the writing is raised somewhat by the inclusion of the aforementioned geek-crack - though I was slightly disappointed to find no trace of Detective Ted Swensen, a very cool character from previous issues, who is driven to find and punish criminals using invariably bloodthirsty means, but I can see the necessity of focussing on Connell for the time being.

Salvador Larroca also does an admirable job, as he has done consistently so far in the series. His art keeps a much more realistic tone than is usually seen in superhero comics, and this helps to give the sense that the action takes place in a world closely related to our own. And when it comes to the action, Larocca can more than hold his own, as he displays to great effect near the end of the book.

This series so far is a difficult one to judge. It seems for every really interesting plotline there is one that struggles to justify itself. The issues themselves are similarly inconsistent, the first was very good, but two and three seemed to be almost killing time. Luckily, this one brings the series back on form, for now at least.

Rating: 4/5