I have to admit that I wasn’t that excited for the whole superhero initiative thing that Dark Horse was doing at first, but I completely understood the point. Since “Superhero” is now a genre in summer blockbuster films, I guess that it was only a matter of time until every single publisher out there was putting out more superhero books. But if I had to choose a writer to head up my new superhero comic, I would definitely choose Fred Van Lente. I mean I was tweeting positive things about this guy way before anyone on the Internet cared about my opinion. I feel like that came across rather hipster. Anyway, I’m a big fan of The Amazing Spider-Man, and he wrote some good stuff for that character. I won’t forget that, Fred. Not to mention, Archer & Armstrong. Those scripts get better every month. But I digress. The conclusion of Psy vs. Psy brings a strong end to the first arc of this re-launch. Ricorta and Agent Price (a.k.a. Brain Boy) square off for the final showdown. This issue is full of mind-blowing telekinetic… shenanigans? A better word doesn’t really come to mind right now. Anyway, it was a pretty fun read. Plus, there is a twist at the end that surprised even me. I’m usually not caught off guard by that stuff. See, the twist starts as something predictable (which I did predict), but it ends with something else. It was pretty cool. It definitely sets the tone for the rest of the series.
Ok, Fred. You write a lot, man. Sometimes it’s hard to keep up with everything that’s going on in your books. Sometimes they even require a couple of reads, but I’m satisfied every time. Well, I have been so far. The dialogue is actually really funny at times. I think that it might be that a lot of the dialogue is actually being thought instead of spoken. That’s a pretty cool strategy. I may have missed instances of that happening before, but as of now it seems pretty original.
R.B. Silva does a hell of a job with the art in this series. It kind of seems like a mix between (and forgive me if you don’t agree) some kind of anime and video game storyboards. Whether that sounds good or not, I think that it fits really well with the tone of the script. Plus, the colors by Ego are especially good in this issue.
I suggest you pick up this book. Dark Horse has a winner here, especially if it keeps its current creative team. I almost wish that Dark Horse wasn’t putting out its zero issues next month, because I’m really curious about what happens next to Agent Price. Regardless, if you were trying to decide whether or not to give it a chance, ponder no further.
Score: 5/5
Writer: Fred Van Lente Artist: R.B. Silva Publisher: Dark Horse Comics Price: $2.99 Release Date: 11/20/13