Title:
The Twelve: A Thrilling Novel of Tomorrow, Volume 1
Writer: J. Michael Straczynski
Artist: Chris Weston
J. Michael Straczynski is quickly becoming one of my favorite comic book writers. After
I reviewed the first collected volume of Rising Stars, my blogger pal
Tony Laplume recommended
The Twelve. For this series, Straczynski and Weston resurrected a dozen obscure characters from Marvel's Golden Age, back when the company was known as Timely Comics. With shades of Rip Van Winkle, The Twelve were cryogenically frozen by the Nazis in 1945, forgotten, then discovered and awoken by the U.S. military 60 years later. The story chronicles their adjustment to 21st century society.
Volume 1 collects the first six issues of a twelve-issue run.
The adventure for the reader is in learning more about the individual characters, rather than marveling at the heroic or not so heroic exploits. What I enjoy about Straczynski's work is his ability to dig into the personal insecurities of his super-powered beings. A superhero team is hardly a new idea but the writer's investment in each member is deep in
The Twelve, just as it is for
Rising Stars.
Weston's art is vivid and engaging throughout. I'm also very impressed with the cover art. The image at the top of my post is from issue #1, cover art by Kaare Andrews. Andrews also did the covers for #2-4. Here's #2:
The covers for #5 and #6 were by Paolo Rivera. Here's #5:
Thanks for the recommendation, Tony!
Part of the mystique among its fans is that the last three issues were delayed by several years, and so we had to wait to see how it would all end. It's a more straightforward version of Watchmen, although neither loses anything by the comparison. You can appreciate The Twelve for finding intimate ways to explore the pathos of each character. You can appreciate Watchmen for its sheer scope.
ReplyDeleteTo me, the Watchmen allusions in Rising Stars were more obvious. Between these and Kingdom Come, the aging superhero team is well covered ground at this point. I've enjoyed all four stories so I guess the idea works for me.
DeletePainted covers are always amazing and it's great that he can find ways to humanize superheroes.
ReplyDeleteI regret that my image failed for cover #2. I really liked that one. I may need to find another. The artistic work is nice but I also really like the lettering - feels like a 1930s era pulp novel.
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