Twelve: Issue 1 Review

The Twelve is the new comic from one of my all time faveourite writers, J. Michael Straczynski, hence forth known as JMS, and published my the mega corporation Marvel. This dude as written stuff including the seminal and must watch TV series Babylon 5, Spiderman, the fantastic must read Supreme Power and much much MUCH more.

He rarely steps a foot wrong with a modern, intricate and well realised imagination he often makes characters and plots come alive with a power not seen anywhere else. Yeh, I might love this guy, maybe just a little.
So, onto this comic. The plot is simple and kinda pulpy, beware the minor spoilers (ed-lazy boy takes much of the synopsis directly from Wiki):

It concerns 12 superhumans randomly kidnapped by the Nazis during WW2 in order to study their powers for the Nazis' "Master Race" efforts. The superhumans were put in cryogenic suspended-animation until the present day. They wake up to find a very different world in 2008, one in which they all sign back on with the military and become pro registration (ed-the bastards).

Now, I wont go into detail about who the Twelve are, as frankly, the names will probably mean little to you. Know this though, they aint a team, they are only there due to circumstance. The issue is obviously all about set, up, lots of back story and not a lot of action. It is of course written well and the art by Chris Weston is great, capturing movement very well.

I enjoyed the issue and where it ends certainly makes me want to get to number two, if it gets put on my permanent pick pile remains to be seen though. I feel it's a little harsh to score the comic now, but I will anyway, it's solid and fun, with interesting characters and some good (if not enough) action. I think I shall throw in another point for the possiblities of the story as well, cos I am just that giving. 8/10