Advance Review: Psi-Lords #1
Superhero groups deserve an epic sort of origin. They must try and get into space first, thus getting bombarded by cosmic rays, an evil god could trick them into forming a super club or an evil space jelly fish with mind control powers could be the threat from which the mightiest will team-up. Imagine then, if your origin was being kidnapped and medically operated on! Not exactly the stuff of legends.
Four disparate people wake up; all four are bald, all four are wearing jumpsuits and all four have bar codes tattooed on them. In their head’s, they hear the voice of Scion, a kind of ephemeral voice offering guidance and advice. With this advice the unfortunate foursome, find Scion, their captors and a whole world of other problems to contend with.
Fred Van Lente, a writer who has spent time at Marvel and Dark Horse as well as Valiant, has written a book that feels like happenstance, yet hints as so much more. In the four characters, we get a range of skills. With the nod that these are gods; to paraphrase Captain Kirk “why do gods need to be in prison?”  This isn’t the first time that Valiant have dabbled in “way too powerful” characters; it wasn’t that long ago that we had Divinity. Here, Van Lente has taken more of a normal person approach; each of the four have their weaknesses, which I am sure that they will have to overcome by working together….eventually. The feel of the writing is a little off; it seems that everybody feels the need to start a conversation by advising what they were, solider, architect for example, which unfortunately feels like exposition; sure we probably need to know that, but surely there is a more organic way to get this information out, especially as this is an ongoing book. Powers are slowly introduced in a way that makes sense in both reading and in the characters reaction, growing into a sort of confidence though the quick acceptance does impact this a little.
The main pull for this book will no doubt be the art of Renato Guedes and quite rightly so. Any flaw in perspective and of poses is instantly forgiven when you look at all the detail that each full bleed page contains. The level of details can be seen on the faces of the characters, which can look a tad odd in comparison to some nondescript figure work shown in some panels. The art has a multi-layered panel approach that gives the book a level of visual depth that you really only see in some high end mature books or trades. As I am looking at an advance copy, there are no credits given to either the colorist or the letterer, which is a shame as for while the art is excellent, I think it is the colors that make is so. Dark hues are used well, as are shadows, giving the book a spooky feeling. If Guedes provided his own colors then well done; if it was someone else, can someone at Valiant let me know so I can give credit where credit is due. Same goes for the letterer, who does a great job of giving Scion his own font and word bubble style that highlights his ghost-like status.
For a while, Valiant have been re-tooling their older characters, possibly to engage with newer readers. Psi-Lords is no different, having been a Valiant book back in the 90’s Now of course, things have changed; sure we still get the color coded suits, but are we still in the 41st Century, and why does the cast seem like the sampling of a CW show? First issues can be a difficult prospect; the creators have to produce a book that captures the imagination, and the disposable income of readers who are already feeling the burden of following whatever major event is happening this week. Throw in that this is a team book, where the characters don’t know each other ensuring that, at times, the writing jumps from trying to be funny to being serious at the drop of a hat and you can see the difficulty facing Valiant. As this is an ongoing book, Van Lente and Guedes will have time to gel their own strengths and add another quality to book to the Valiant stable.
Psi-Lords #1 will hit stores on June 19th.
Writing – 3.5 Stars
Art & Colors – 5 Stars
[yasr_overall_rating size=”large”]
Writing – Fred Van Lente
Art by; Renato Guedes
Published by:Valiant Entertainment
Author Profile
- I am a long time comic book fan, being first introduced to Batman in the mid to late 70's. This led to a appreciation of classic artists like Neal Adams and Jim Aparo. Moving through the decades that followed, I have a working knowledge of a huge raft of characters with a fondness for old school characters like JSA and The Shadow
Currently reading a slew of Bat Books, enjoying a mini Marvel revival, and the host of The Definative Crusade and Outside the Panels whilst also appearing on No-Prize Podcast on the Undercover Capes Podcast Network
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