By Dustin Cabeal

The only good thing that’s come from Dark Night Metal is that there’s a slew of new characters flooding the DC Universe. There’s not much of a chance that all of these new characters will stick around, but I like when DC attempts character creations like this because we might see them later down the road, re-invented and more interesting. After the big “you better own that character” boom of the mid-2000’s creators seemed to stop creating new characters for the big two which left this void of potentially dumb, but awesome characters.

The Unexpected lives up to its name. It’s a pretty “WTF” issue in that a lot of shit is happening, it connects to Dark Nights Metal because the narration at the beginning tells us it does at the beginning, but then the narration is forgotten and gone by the second act.

What’s also interesting is that much like Sideways, the artists are given first billing. I don’t know if this is a throwback Kirby way of telling comics in which the artists are in charge of the story and the writer helping them is coming in after, but it’s interesting. Successful? We’ll see, it works for me on Sideways, but The Unexpected is just starting.

The issue starts off with Firebrand’s origin. She narrates her origin after knocking out Killer Croc with seemingly one punch. She then starts drinking before she heads to the VA hospital she works out. The gist of her origin is that her father is a dick and donated her dead body to R&D and they put a new heart in her body. It’s called a Conflict Heart TM, and that shit is the dopest name for such a gimmicky fucking device. To keep her heart beating, she needs to be in a conflict… hence the fighting. Otherwise, the heart stops, and she dies again. Apparently, she wants to live because she fights with villains to keep her heart going.

When she arrives to work, she finds a man that looks like a demonic version of Macho Man but dressed like every crooked car salesman from Texas in a Hollywood movie. He’s there for the heart, but some other fuckers show up to stop him. A Viking woman he has beef with, his “opposite,” a man with hair in his eyes who I instantly hated and some blue fucker. I’ll let you know right now, most of these people shouldn’t even be on the cover. Shit happens, and Macho Man of Death does some crazy shit to Firebrand and creates something new… and super dangerous because what else would happen?

The story is not perfect. Who these people are, where have they been the entire DCU’s existence and how do they fit in with the already convoluted and complex “gods of all time” hierarchy is a question I’ve long stopped asking, but I’m sure will bug some readers. Other than Firebrand (shit name by the way) the rest of their powers seem pretty generic. Macho Man of Doom’s powers sound great, but we don’t see them in use. He talks more than he acts, always cutting a promo, but the turning into a real Ultimate Warrior in the ring. The writing could use more structure. The opening is completely disconnected from the rest of the story. It’s necessary because without knowing about Firebrand we’re not going to understand the rest of the story, but then the rest of the story doesn’t vibe or fit with the origin. It could have used a different approach. Overlapping the two elements perhaps. I’m not going to re-write the issue, but instead simply say that the structure the creators used, didn’t work and didn’t do the readers any favors.

The art is great! Big surprise given that Ryan Sook and Cary Nord are on the title. Too bad it’s not just one of them on the book so that we could fully enjoy both artists, but I’ll take the split duties. Both artists have their own inker, but it’s all brought home by PCO Plascencia on the colors. The colors are the only part that didn’t excel. There are times it looks really good, particularly the last page, but then other times that it’s all too flat. There’s a red woman, a blue man and they don’t pop off the page. They’re flat and stiff looking instead of being vibrant and 3-D. It doesn’t help make the world look photorealistic which is what the illustrations are attempting to do.

While I will personally be back for the second issue of The Unexpected, I can easily see why some readers wouldn’t be back. It’s not very catchy or impressive. The threat is generic and has been done a hundred times before. Only one character has been developed, and there’s nothing about her that is likely to hook you and say, “Yeah, more Firebrand please!” Also, I would have spelled that Fyre Brand TM, but that’s just me. Overall, it’s okay. I’m curious to get through the first adventure to see what can come from this, but I have a feeling we’ll see Firebrand used in Suicide Squad in five years and that’ll be it.

Score: 3/5

The Unexpected #1
DC Comics