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Xombi #1
Publisher: DC Comics
Writer: John Rozum
Artist: Fraser Irving
Cover: Fraser Irving

“Prison of Industry”: It’s been very close to fifteen years since Xombi was on a shelf, but since the combining of the Milestone Universe and the DCU, we’ll see if John Rozum can wow fans again with a character he wrote over a decade ago. Now, David Kim isn’t a “zombie” in the traditional sense, as his body is filled with nanotech that keeps him young, strong, and grants him various abilities. But everything comes with a price. If you have never read Xombi or have forgotten certain things, just relax, because John Rozum eases you into what is a great set up issue without throwing a lot of origin stuff at you. Instead he focuses on the present, while giving the reader the basics either with the sharp dialog or in the captions.

The issue starts off pretty creepy as certain things are happening worldwide that shouldn’t be. From portraits of animals leaving their paintings to hunt in another portrait, to a character in a movie who doesn’t appear in any of his scenes but is actually in the audience taking a life. During these events a warning comes from the talking change in Julian’s pocket, so he puts the call out to the only man he can trust to heed the call: David Kim. From here on Rozum’s story begins to get weird as we’re introduced to several more characters, and we find out what the Prison of Industry is and what the warning was about.

Reintroducing Xombi to this generation of comic fans is a great idea, and when it was announced that the original writer, John Rozum, would be on the title, that pretty much sealed the deal for me. Even after the long absence of this title he’s still able to bring the right amount of weird and great storytelling that helps give Xombi its own flavor. There is a bit of expo in the first half of the issue that he uses to give a brief overview of David Kim and his abilities, and it’s just enough to get you caught up and comfortable with the character. I was also glad that he brought back Catholic Girl, Nun of the Above, along with the newly added Nun the Less! These were always great names and I’d enjoy seeing more nuns with puns assist Kim in his battle against whatever crazy situation he gets into.

Another plus for this series is the artwork of Fraser Irving, which actually surprised me because a lot of times his work just doesn’t do it for me. It was just great from page to page whether it was David and his best friend just sitting around watching television, to the battle against the snow angels. Yeah, you read that right, we have killer snow angels in Xombi and that’s not even the weirdest thing that happens in this issue. Though I may not have been too fond of his style in other titles, I’ve always liked his use of color for his scenes and that carries over right in this issue.

Incorporating the Milestone Universe into their own was probably one of the best things DC could have done. Mainly because guys like Dywane McDuffie, Denys Cowan, and others at the company created a pool of characters that were a far cry from the current status quo at the time. So I’m hoping that Rozum and Irving remain on the book for quite some time and not just for the first arc or two, because the shelves at comic shops are overrun with sub par material and the first issue of Xombi has shown you don’t need tights and a cape to be hot!

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