[Editor’s Note: This review may contain spoilers]
Writer: Jeff Lemire
Artist: Dale Eaglesham
Colors: Mike Atiyeh
Letters: Tom Napolitano
Reviewed By: Derek McNeil
Summary
Welcome to Millennium City in part one of “Tom Strong and the Terrifics”! To cure themselves of the Dark Energy bond that’s gripped them, the Terrifics use the Dark Multiverse antenna to track down the one man who can help them—Tom Strong. In Millennium City, the Terrifics follow Strong’s signal, only to find his lab destroyed and his loyal A.I. aide Pneuman shattered. And the weirdness doesn’t end when a mystical tree transports the team across the universe.
Positives
There seems to be a bit of role-reversal between Plastic Man and Metamorpho this issue. The normally cheerful Plas is understandably depressed. He wants to reconnect with his son, but his ex-girlfriend isn’t returning his calls. Meanwhile, the usually gruff Metamorpho is overjoyed to be normal, human Rex Mason again.
However, despite Rex’s good fortune, he is still tied to the others by through their Dark-Energy bond. So, he still has to go on missions with the team, despite his loss of powers. To compensate for this, Mister Terrific gives Rex a “ray gun” to protect himself with.
Terrific deduces that their new foe, Doctor Dread is using Simon Stagg’s technology against them, and this is confirmed by Java. Surprisingly, Java seems surprisingly intelligent – at least compared to how he has been shown in previous Metamorpho comics. Java suspected the same thing and checked Stagg’s warehouse to verify his suspicions.
Knowing that Tom Strong is Doctor Dread’s next target, Terrific takes the team to the parallel Earth that is Strong’s home. I’m not very familiar with Tom Strong, but Lemire gives us a feel for the character and his world with a short introductory fight between Strong and his foe Paul Saveen. This mini-adventure is enough to convey that Strong is a Doc Savage-like character living in a pulp hero world.
Negatives
My only complaint is that I’m finding it hard to wait to see Plastic Man’s reunion with his son Luke (or Ernie). But that’s more due to my own impatience than anything else. I’m sure Lemire plans to get around to this when it best suits the story – but hopefully it won’t be much longer.
Verdict
Plastic Man has always been one of my favourite characters, and Jeff Lemire is quickly becoming one of my favourite writers, so it’s no surprise that I love this book. It may seem strange for DC to mix together a group of disparate characters into a group that somewhat resembles a Marvel group, but Lemire brings it all together in one of the best titles in DC’s lineup.
