| Comic Review | Paul Milligan |
Beyond!
#1 (of 6)
Writer: Dwayne McDuffie
Artist: Scott Kolins
Colors: Paul Mounts
Letters: Dave Lanphear
Nine of the most unlikely heroes and villains have been
abducted by an unknown intelligence. The purpose of their
abduction: to kill their enemies and receive their heart’s
desires.
With the current tidal wave of event books from both Marvel
and DC Comics, Beyond is, unfortunately, something that
could easily be overlooked. With all their efforts solidly
focused on promoting Civil War and its various tie-in’s it
seems like even the Marvel bigwigs have forgotten about this
one. It’s a shame considering that this book could
definitely be promoted as a wonderful alternative for those
readers sick of reading one event tying in to another and so
on and so on. I for one think it’s great to see a
self-contained mini-series like this one that isn’t part of
the Civil War mess and doesn’t require you to read twenty
other tie-in minis and one shots (Annihilation, I’m looking
in your direction).
Not only is this book self-contained, it’s almost completely
reader friendly, making it a true rarity in this day and
age. While it alludes to a connection with Marvel’s very
first “event” book,
Secret Wars and features a
number of lesser-known characters everything you need to
know is presented to you in this first issue. No muss, no
fuss. It harkens back to a simpler time when all you needed
to know was given to you right there on the page.
It’s also pretty cool to see so many underused and almost
forgotten characters featured in one book. Sure, you’ve got
Spiderman and Venom in there (Wolverine, thank God, is
nowhere to be seen) but there are several characters who
either haven’t been seen in years, like
The Hood and Al Kraven, the son of Kraven the Hunter
(neither of whom have made any appearances since their own
excellent mini-series’), or are rarely featured, such as
Henry Pym, The Wasp, Medusa and
Gravity. If you
love B-List characters (which I most certainly do) Beyond
is
chock full of them.
And then there’s the amazing artwork by Scott Kolins, easily
one of my all-time favorite artists since his brilliant run
on
The Flash with Geoff Johns. His simple,
clean style is so perfectly attuned to a straight up
superhero adventure like this one. Whether it’s
awe-inspiring moments of cosmic grandeur or the facial
expressions and movements of two people talking to one
another, this guy’s work is a visual feast. And he’s got a
knack for nailing each character perfectly, whether he’s
drawing them for the first time or the hundredth. Not to
mention his covers are gorgeous.
I applaud Kolins and writer Dwayne McDuffie (who I haven’t
seen writing comics for a few years) for giving us such a
fun and straightforward story and making it work with such a
diverse cast of characters. And that ending! I can’t wait to
see how they get themselves out of that one! Trust me, if
you’re looking for a headache-free alternative to all of the
Crisis, One Year Later, 52, Civil War, Planet Hulk,
Annihilation hullabaloo then look no further than Beyond.
Perhaps I’m reaching here but I think that Beyond could be
the sleeper hit of the summer, especially with the return of
so many long lost characters, including Deathlok coming up
in issue #3!
Special thanks go out to Jeremy Shorr, owner of
Titan Comics for allowing us to use his advance
preview books for review purposes.
