This, the fifth title in the critically acclaimed Milestone imprint, could be seen as an attempt to attract the Vertigo audience. It bears a resemblance to Morrison's Doom Patrol, in so far as John Rozum isn't afraid to think strange in public. Take this very first issue. The premise is simply a set-up for the Shadow War crossover; all that is neccesary is for the representatives of both Good Guys and Bad Guys to appear to David Kim, the Xombi, and try to persuade him to jon them. Most superhero writers (and Xombi is, like the Doom Patrol, definitely a superhero title) would be happy to fit this into a first issue, just after an origin, while the hero was still uncertain of himself, for example. Rozum, however, sets the issue after the as-yet unwritten issue 10, and explains this unique arrangement in an intelligent and promising statement of intent, placed where the letter page will be in future issues. The representatives of the two sides also show a Morrison-like ingenuity, and the dialogue is intelligent, staying well clear of both pretension and exposition. The art, although nicely done, is annoyingly inconsistent in parts, with Cowan giving two radically different appearances to The Artery Bandits within two pages.
Art:3
Writing:4.5
Andrew