Broken Frontier

Jimmy Hudson is a popular young man.  Doing stupid rash things and getting all the girls.  When an accident reveals that there is something unusual about him, his whole world changes.

Well, we knew it wouldn’t last forever.  You know, that whole end of the Ultimate Universe thing.  Jeph Loeb recklessly destroyed it and now he is one of the architects in building it back up.

Here, we get a little glimpse of normality after the senseless violence of Ultimatum.  People actually have lives, even if they are some weird update of American Graffiti.  Jimmy Hudson, adopted son of James Hudson (clever little Easter egg there, well played Jeph, well played) has just found out that he is a mutant.  Does he get to go to Disneyland?  Nope.  He gets a visit from Kitty Pryde who has a package from his real dad.

It would be hard to say much more about the book without revealing all the good hidden stuff for you and what would be the fun in that?  You know this isn’t Scans Daily, right?  Good, now don't take too close of a look at the cover or you will figure it out.

So this is a Loeb book and the biggest question of any Loeb book is which one showed up?  Is it the guy who destroyed the Ultimates beginning in volume 3 of that title?  Is it the writer with a keen sense of character who got Smallville off the ground with Superman for All Seasons or is it the manic bastard who writes Hulk with so much glee that it is all too easy to forgive the comic’s ill begotten logic?

Despite a moment or two that, frankly, just don’t make sense (you’ll know it when someone mentions a Peter who spells his name differently from what is in this book), this is the character guy.  The narrator, James “Guardian” Hudson distills one of comics' biggest icons to his essence in the beginning of the book.  So well, in fact, that when the reveal is made, you already knew the answer (it might, however, have been that pesky cover).  More importantly, he gives both the elder sheriff and the young man with the same name just as much depth without a history to build it upon.  This is Loeb at the top of his game.

Well, you would expect Loeb at the top of his game to be sharing the creative billing with Tim Sale.  However, Mr. Sale is either busy with the end of the Heroes franchise or working on Captain America: White #1, because this issue is pencilled by Arthur Adams.  As a result, you get that iconic comic book art that is familiar yet different.  It’s hard to describe, but like MacFarlane and Romita, Jr (old school JRJR, that is), you know his art when you see it.  So you get nice storytelling and fine line work with designs that let you know who people are the second they step on panel.

I’ve got no idea where this is all going, especially given the teaser pics we have seen on the Internet or the lead in to next issue on the last page of this book, but this is a solid start from a capable creative team.  It is nothing spectacular. This is not the next big thing.  It is the little thing that people may just be discussing because of who is responsible for it.