Review: PROJECT SUPERPOWERS: BLACKCROSS #1

Blackcross01-Cov-A-LeePROJECT SUPERPOWERS: BLACKCROSS #1
Written by Warren Ellis
Art by Colton Worley, Morgan Hickman
Published by Dynamite Entertainment
Release Date: March 4, 2015

Last year Dynamite announced that the great Warren Ellis would be shepherding in a new era for Project Superpowers, as the writer would be rebooting the concept of a shared universe consisting of Public Domain characters. Blackcross is the beginning of this new status quo, and Ellis is joined  by artist Colton Worley, colorist Morgan Hickman, and cover artist Jae Lee. When you think of Warren Ellis being in charge of an entire shared universe your mind begins to run wild, as the potential is limitless. While the potential remains, the first issue of this new venture fails to live up to what it could be.

Blackcross isn’t a character, but rather a mysterious town in the Pacific Northwest with a dark secret. Ellis begins the issue with a six page opening that is nearly silent, and absolutely terrifying. This intro quickly sets the tone of the issue, and shows that this six issue miniseries isn’t going to be your typical Project Superpowers story. It’s too bad that this great opening sequence leads to a very uneven, and at often times confusing remaining sixteen pages. Readers are introduced to a a few characters over the course of the story including Special Agent Bart Hill, Lady Satan, Rob Benton, and Gary Preston. One of the big problems with the characters is for a supposed reboot it sure feels like we are supposed to be somewhat familiar with who these characters were in prior iterations of Project Superpowers. I found myself searching character names on Google to see if I was missing anything that would make scenes have more of an emotional impact, and most of the time they did. In other words, it really isn’t clear just how much of a reboot this really is.

Despite the unevenness in the characters there seems to be the seeds of an interesting story deep in there, but the disparate threads haven’t started to tie together beyond the city the events are taking place in. There are the Special Agents that are processing a murder victim that happens to be a superhero. The signs point to Blackcross. Lady Satan is a fake medium that ends up being a little more real than she bargained for, and is sent on what can be called a rescue mission to Blackcross. Rob Benton is haunted by nightmares, and just happens to find himself a member of the Witness Protection Program in Blackcross.

We have a murder mystery, a spiritual rescue mission, and the story of a man on the run from the Mafia all beginning. This doesn’t even take into account the events of the opening sequence, and when you consider the opening is six pages, the other three stories are only given sixteen pages to split between them. If you know these characters, and recognize the names you may have a better idea of how these characters could potentially tie together. If you are new to this world you just see separate characters being drawn to a single town. As for this town of Blackcross, we find out nothing about it other  than it’s a place you’d hide a person in Witsec and in the Pacific Northwest. For a place that’s drawing all these people to it, the story would be better served if readers were able to get to know the town a bit. Maybe it’s the Twin Peaks fan in me, but a town with a story has great potential to be a character in of itself. There’s just not enough room for all of this in twenty-two pages of story, and that what makes this issue so hard to judge. The series has a lot of potential, but it just doesn’t live up to what it could be quite yet.

The art by Colton Worley and colorist Morgan Hickman is just as uneven as the story. In the afformentioned opening sequence it is immediately clear why this duo was chosen for a story like this one. There is a very moody feel to Worley’s pencils that are matched by Hickman’s palate. The problem is that the art is inconsistent. It ranges from very good to just okay without ever being great. The big problem with the art are the muddled colors during darker scenes. It’s hard to make out exactly what’s going on in certain panels. Given the nature of this story it isn’t as big of a deal as it could be in other books, but it’s still a problem. While it’s okay for the scene in the dark forest to be hard to see, it’s not so great when trying to make out what’s happening in one of the more eventful scenes with Lady Satan. When it’s light outside, like during the opening, the art works. It isn’t going to blow anybody away though. It is merely serviceable, and I’m worried that while the chances for the story to pick up are good, the art might end up holding it back.

Overall this was a very hard book to review. The opening issue had flashes of brilliance marred by Ellis trying to fit too much from too many places into one issue. Then there’s the fact that it really isn’t clear whether you’re supposed to know these characters or not. I think it’s a reboot, but as a new reader to the universe I’m not sure. It doesn’t help that the art doesn’t elevate the material in the ways that art is able to at times. You are not going to overlook the flaws of the issue because the quality of the art. However, it is easy to see that despite a heavily uneven first issue that Ellis has the makings for a good story here. When it’s all said and done this first issue will probably read much clearer in conjunction with the rest of the series. The potential I talked about in the opening is still there, but I’m waiting for Blackcross to unleash it

The Verdict: 6.5/10

Related posts

Top