The Unexpected #1
Publisher: DC
Story: Steve Orlando
Pencils: Ryan Sook, Cary Nord
Inks: Mick Gray, Wade von Grawbadger
Colors: FCO Plascencia
Letters: Carlos M. Mangual
The last of DC’s “New Age of Heroes” line, the Unexpected is another offbeat team book that, similar to the Immortals and the New Challengers, focuses on new characters spilling out of the aftermath of Dark Nights: Metal, rather than on established heroes such as the Terrifics. As a debut issue introducing new characters and new possibilities thanks to the dissolution of the Source Wall, it largely succeeds, but there is room for improvement.
The problem with new team books, especially ones featuring all new characters, is that it’s difficult to get a sense of the characters, what motivates them, and why they would choose to work together. The Unexpected has this challenge, as well as the issue of trying to explain how the DC Universe is now a different place due to the damage done to the Source Wall by the Justice League in the finale of Dark Nights: Metal. It’s a lot to try to explain, and as a reader, it’s a lot to take in. There is almost no tie to the standard DC Universe in this issue, other than a mention that main character, Firebrand (aka Janet Fals) is from Gotham City, but that’s merely a contrivance to explain how the character was affected by, and fought to help people during, the attacks by the Batmen from the Dark Multiverse.
Firebrand’s character is unique, and it’s one of the stronger points of this issue. She’s formerly an E.M.T. in Gotham City who died during the Dark Batmen attacks, and whose has been experimented on and brought back to life using a variety of unconventional techniques, including a “conflict engine” that replaces her heart. The catch is, for the conflict engine to function properly, Firebrand needs to have a fight every 24 hours, which is contrary to her more pacifistic nature. While this does create some interesting opportunities for character development in the future, it is a bit contrived, and since we don’t yet really have a sense of Janet’s more humanitarian side, other than her mentioning her E.M.T. career, it doesn’t quite work to set up this internal conflict so early.
In general, this has been one of the main issues with all the New Age of Heroes line, in that the storytellers work so hard to avoid the standard origin stories for the main characters, that it does make it more difficult to get invested in the characters. Firebrand gets a bit more development here, but the rest of the characters, both good and bad, suffer from the lack of detail. The actual namesakes of the Unexpected (Neon, Elligh, and Viking Judge) get very little opportunity to display anything truly unique in terms of character, and one of the most interesting characters from the story, super-villain Bad Samaritan, is glossed over pretty quickly to get to introducing the remaining characters.
Fortunately, the character designs are done very well, courtesy of the art from the team of Nord, Sook, Gray, von Grawbadger, and coloring by FSO Plasencia. The characters, especially that of Neon and the Bad Samaritan, are unique and well-detailed. The facial expressions are particularly well-done with great amounts of detail and emotional resonance. However, many of the panel designs lack any kind of detailsed backgrounds, which makes the panels look a bit rushed. Given that Ryan Sook, the originally announced artist, seems to be off the book already starting with issue #2, that’s not a huge surprise, but hopefully replacement artist Cary Nord can keep more consistency beginning next issue.
Steve Orlando has a history of doing some very interesting, offbeat comics, and the Unexpected could grow into one of those unique, compelling storylines once it’s given a chance to develop. As a standalone first issue, The Unexpected #1 is good, if a little hampered by the amount of world-building that needs to be explained and the number of characters that need to be introduced, but given Orlando’s track record, it could turn into a great series.
Martin Thomas
martin@comicattack.net
