If there is one thing about the iFanboy nation, it’s that the people that frequent the site can often lead you to find new and exciting things.  The Order has been one of those titles that users have been screaming about since it’s launch 8 months ago.  Hell, Ron even picked the first issue as a pick of the week!  And after making my way through the first trade I can see what all the hub-bub was about–this book freaking rocks.

What appears to be just another super team book, quickly evolves into one of the most engaging Marvel books around.  Matt Fraction is spinning a tale about really interesting characters.  What each character has as strengths, they have an equal amount of things wrong with them, and that makes these characters so much more human, so much more accessible.  The tapestry of powers that these characters display is also very different from any other teams out there.  When Fraction put these characters together, he took powers that we’ve seen before and molded them into something new and different.  The real fun in this book comes from watching these dynamic people come together and attempt to work as a team.  And you can tell with each battle that they’re working together more and more.  But by the end of the trade, there’s still that sense that they are still not quite a team.  Not quite yet.  It’s this dynamic that makes this really fun to read through, and I would say it’s probably one of those things that makes other new team books like Dynamo 5 so much fun.  Because all of us are so used to seeing teams like the X-Men, FF, and the Avengers work like clockwork, it’s fun to get a look at the beginning and how it all started.

The storylines that Fraction has been weaving together in this book are just outstanding and each of the plot lines serves an important purpose.  Having each issue focus on one of the characters is a great approach as it adds plenty of depth and layers to each of the individauls.  By far, Henry is one of my favorites as we watch him try to juggle all the responsibilties of leading a super hero team.  I’m also in love with the fact that two of the characters have physical disabilities, and yet they are still super heroing and are engaging individuals–it’s not often that we see this in comics.

Enough can not be said about just how gorgeous Barry Kitson’s art is in this book.  Everything just pops off the page, and each of his characters are distinct.  He delivers the story in a manner that makes it engaging, and I found my eye balls glued to each panel long after I had digested the words.  I would maybe describe his look as an amalgamation of Cliff Chiang and Bryan Hitch.  He displays Hitch’s knack for sci-fi based drawings with larger than life characters and he catches all the details.  But his pacing and paneling follow Chiang’s sensibilities, and he also favors more of the heavy lines and cleaner style around the items on the page much like Chiang. 

It’s pretty heartbreaking that this series is getting canceled with issue #10.  And I realize that I’m part of the reason that’s happening.  I ignored the iFanboy masses, and I was wrong.  I can’t wait for the second trade, though, and I might be going out on a limb when I say this, but this just may be the next Young Avengers for me–a two volume series that shows just how good comics can be.