Review: New Universal #1
Not much substance should be expected out of a 1st issue comic, but New Universal #1 delivers a surprising amount of story and development. The obvious point of this issue is to introduce the series to new readers, but also to create a book that is entertaining enough to warrant the purchase of #2. Warren Ellis accomplished this task with flying colors.
The story starts out with an interesting way of introducing the characters. Between various jump-scenes depicting a man in a New York City hospital bed, a couple laying under the stars in Oklahoma, a slight social tiff in a nightclub in San Fransisco, and a few various scenes from around the globe, the reader grasps a general understanding of the world that is depicted in this book. That world is one devoid of super-humans. This is an excellent start for a story, considering how saturated the world of comics has become. Most "mainstream," comics have seemingly run completely out of ways to keep super-hero comics interesting. We now are facing a DC world without Batman, Superman, and Wonderwoman. Every hero in the Marvel universe is currently engaged in a civil war that promises to "change the lives of every marvel character forever." It seems that readers are now longing for a fresh, un-convoluted story about new characters and how they came to be, and are straying away from the mainstays finally doing something a little different. This particular work promises to deliver that same breath of fresh air as the widely-accepted "Runaways," series.