I picked this up basically because I recognised the name of the writer, Joe Ahearne, from the work he has done on the BBC's Dr Who. Remembering the last person Marvel plucked from a similar place (Paul Cornell) I thought this was worth a punt.  Still, my expectations were low, so I shouldn't have been quite as disappointed as I ended up.  I think what caused that disappointment was basically that I could see the seeds of an original interesting comic story that did not live up to that hope.

Let me explain...there's a scene towards the end of the issue where a character raises the question of what they are going to do as a group of superheroes on a world with no crime, no supervillains, no disasters etc.  Not only that but they are now, effectively, the last superheroes in history.  Add to this the fact that they are leading the surviving population of a dead planet in beginning a new civilisation on a new world.  To my mind you already have three fascinating jump points to follow up on, which would have differentiated this book from most other product that Marvel is putting out.  Instead the story builds up to the fact that there actually is a supervillian on this nu-earth, and she attacks the team.  It's not that I don't like the old superhero tropes when done well, but I feel bad when there are missed opportunities.  I kept thinking to myself that there's a scope for some really interesting sci-fi here, something in the mould of BSG perhaps, but that never came to pass.

As it is, we're left with an interesting curio.  It's well scripted, and the art is okay (though the pencils in the back suggest that the ink or the colouring are not doing the book any favours).  The thing is, by not giving me something unusual I'm kind of left with the same feelings I had when I first saw the solicitations - do we really need a book for these characters, just what's the point?