I couldn’t really decide how I felt about this comic, so I thought I would give a straight up review and let you decide. There is no doubt that John Byrne is a great comic writer and artist; the art is a definite throwback to the good ole’ comics. The whole thing just flung me back in time. The colors were faded, the jokes were corny, and the heroes were even more. This is where I am a little confused on how to feel about it. It could be a good thing if done right. The heroes, Triple Helix, are a mixture of X-Men and Fantastic Four. We have a Beast character named Apex, the elastic girl, Paper, and the Cyclops, Cataclysm, and so on. The characters are almost perfect reshapes of the Marvel characters. Even their uniforms scream it. It was strange to see such a comparison being done.
The readers fall right into the middle of action with this series. The series is supposed to follow Trio and answers some of the questions from that series. I liked how we fall into the action. There was no need for backstory, and without having read Trio, I understood the plot pretty well. Some Thing-like creature is trying to reason with Triple Helix. The gang takes no chances and right away puts up a fight. This creature is way too powerful for anyone to stop. The city looks in ruins, so I assuming that the city just faced devastation. Meanwhile, Dart, the newest Helix member, is fighting off a Monster dude. He looks like Dr. Doom but with a skull encased in a fish bowl. Liz Lanning, no idea who she is, but she must be some famous reporter whose name they repeat about 20 times, is caught in the fire. She sees who the first creature really is and tries to save him. This is where the team really comes together.
I don’t know everything that is going on like I said, but the weirdest hero was Pylon. He is hurt and in some vehicle wishing he could help out his team. Instead some grannie figure looking like Rosie from The Jetsons stops him before he makes a rash decision. Who knows what is up with that but if you do please tell me.
All in all, I don’t know where I stand since the characters seem to be repeats from the past. I liked the old school style, but I know if enough invention was done to really outshine the new comics or old classic characters. I did read that the covers of this 4 issue series will turn into a giant cover of all the characters. I thought that was pretty cool, and really makes for great publicity. If you dig John Byrne then pick this up along with the other three to make the poster. Otherwise; stick with some classics.
Score: 3/5
Writer/Artist/Creator: John Byrne Colorist: Leonard O’Grady Publisher: IDW Publishing Price: $3.99 Release Date: 10/9/13