I remember reading the first trade of R.E.B.E.L.S. thinking to myself, ‘Damn this Andy Clarke and Scott Hanna are an amazing team.’ I literally fell in love with the two once I read that trade. Knowning full well these two are doing the next art duties, I literally squeeled with delight. Now after reading this first issue I have only one thought on my mind…..God damn this is a gorgeous looking comic.

Oh there are just so many things I could say about Clarke’s pencils, Hanna’s inking, and Alex Sinclair’s colors. The amount of detail with each character in each panel is mind boggling. His take on Damien is spot on how he should be drawn. Finally we see an artist perfectly convey that he is a kid. Even minor characters like the members of Wayne Industries or for El Penitente show so much emotion and character in tiny sections of the book. Then Clarke, Hanna, and Sinclair set the mood so well when we’re inside Wayne Manor. Beautiful lighting effects, the costumes for Batman and Robin stand out, and so much detail into every peice of furniture and painting. I mean take it this way. We see the cover of Damien about to attack; we almost get the exact pose in the interior. I actually preferred Clarke’s take on it then Quitely’s! Weird…

With the story at hand, I think Morrison is blowing my mind and he’s barely scratched the surface. The whole stuff with the geneology of the Wayne family is making me think a thousand thoughts. It doesn’t help that Morrison is slowly teasing us at what he is ultimately getting at. Basically if we thought the Return of Bruce Wayne mini was important…..then it’s important for more reasons then one. Morrison also does an amazing job fleshing out Damien and now, shocking to say, Damien is now one of my favorite characters. When he first introduced him, Damien was just a brat and nothing else. Now we see that Damien is starting to love his job as Robin and he even seems to be ‘bonding’ with Grayson. The scene with Talia reinforces that and I believe she is gonna be a much bigger factor in a few months. Basically Morrison has done such a great job fleshing out Damien the way he is now, he is almost not the same person we met so many years ago.

I feel in love with this issue the moment I opened the first page. Clarke, Hanna, and Sinclair did an outstanding job with this. It is only going to get better with the next issue. In a short time span, like about a month, I haven’t fallen in love with an artist like I have with Clarke. But I won’t sidestep what Morrison accomplished with this issue. He is slowly bring back Bruce Wayne in a very interesting way and this whole geneology aspect is gonna blow our minds….I just know it. This series has hit a couple of missteps in the past but now reading this issue….I think it’s won me back over as my favorite series.