Top Cow’s Pilot Season books have been a great source for fun one-shots over the past 4 years, however the downside has obviously been the delay between the initial issue and the mini-series awarded to the winner.  Of all the books to participate in Pilot Season, Twilight Guardian seemed the most clever and unique, providing yet another step between more “real world” books like Kick-Ass and Batman: Year One and the actual real world.  How does the idea hold up under heavier scrutiny and a few years of delay?

Reading the first issue of Twilight Guardian is bittersweet.  Sweet in that a character is created that as a reader, you instantly enjoy sympathize with and relate to, and at the same time scratches the surface of deeper issues that provide a subtle, yet compelling mystery.  Bitter in that you realize this is only a mini-series, and that this new comic book world is likely to appear only three more times and then either disappear forever or at least for another harsh amount of time.

Writer Troy Hickman has created the most compelling new character in comics, and his quality writing has resulted in a story that will have readers turning the pages in anticipation, without resorting (so far) to splash page action panels or cameos from well known market pleasers.  The art by Siddarth Kotian is perfectly suited to the story, creating a realistic world for the protagonist to travel, and details that make the area seem familiar to the reader at first glance.  Readers of the normal superhero books owe it to themselves to check this book out.