Enginehead #1
Originally presented on April 11, 2004 at Comixtreme.com.
Quick Rating: Fair
Title: First Gear
A group of high-tech brains from across the DC Universe are brought together… but for what purpose?
Writer: Joe Kelly
Art: Ted McKeever
Colors: Chris Chuckry
Letters: Ken Lopez
Editor: Michael Wright
Cover Art: Ted McKeever
Publisher: DC Comics
Review: The new high-tech adventure begins as a group of mechanically-minded geniuses - some familiar, some not - are gathered together from across the DC Universe. Although the book features such big brains as Superman’s old tech guy Emil Hamilton, the focus is on the relatively obscure (in fact, I can’t swear that this isn’t his first appearance) crook named Jackhammer. Each of these brains, and in our protagonist’s case that applies only to his mechanical aptitude, is being brought together to help with some massive project, the true nature of which isn’t even partially revealed until the end of the issue, and even then we are left with far more questions than answers.
Joe Kelly seems to be going for a sort of modern steampunk tone, a sort of grimy, low-tech science fiction series, and while we do start to get into the head of Jackhammer, we aren’t really feeling for him as much as we need to by the time the project begins and the end of the issue comes. This book isn’t a particular grabber.
Ted McKeever is a much bigger draw - he’s done great sci-fi comics from his own Metropol to things like Superman’s Metropolis, and this book keeps the tone he had his earlier projects. He and Kelly are the co-creators of this book, and McKeever’s contributions are evident and welcome.
This isn’t a bad book, but this first issue didn’t do enough to grab me. On the other hand, other recent DC projects like Hard Time took a few issues before they built up enough momentum to get in to, so it’s possible that a few months from now I’ll be looking forward to this title.
Rating: 6/10