This book absolutely drips with imagination.  I read it and I can't for the life of me fathom how it exists.  I can't understand why the higher ups at DC okayed it, other than for the fact that they could just see it was going to be creative excellence.  In today's marketplace that kind of thinking is just absurd, but magnificent just the same. It's the kind of book that's hard to explain but you look at it and just know that it deserves to be on the racks.

The first three issues were wild and crazy in a Grant Morrison Doom Patrol kinda way, and at times it was difficult to stay focussed on the story, such were the number of ideas being thrown our way.  However, the magic was there and with issue four John Rozum brings everything together, starts to show how everything ties in and still propels the story onto it's next arc.  There's exceptional world building here, in that it feels original but makes a perfect sense within it's own universe.  It appears to work within the DC universe, but somewhere off to the left out of sight, writing it's own rules.  The main cast of characters sit down for breakfast to discuss the events in the Prison of Industry, and how they relate to recent inroduction Annie, a refugee from what is called the Ninth Stronghold.  I can't explain it all here, but I promise it makes sense in the book!  At it's core this is an issue made up of exposition on top of exposition, yet the setting, the well defined characters and flowing script make it feel like anything but.  It's a totally immersive experience, and like nothing else I'll read this week.

Then the art.  Can you believe there are people on the earth that don't like Frazer Irving's stuff?  Me either.  It's perfect for Xombi in that it's unique and has an air of the off-kilter.  Yet it's got a beauty to it too, I mean look at that cover or the title page within.  The Ninth Stronghold rests on top of a giant scary ass skull, yet it's a sight of wonder at the same time.  However, my very favourite panel comes on page 1, panel 4.  It's a shot of Annie sleeping on the couch while David walks in with cups of coffee.  Irving pencils and colours it in such an amazing way, with the sunlight streaming through the window, that you can almost tell the time of day.  It's cartooning, not realism, yet you can almost reach out and touch it just the same.

I'm saddened that this book doesn't seem to have survived the relaunch.  There's been mention of the also excellent Thunder Agents arriving in the second wave of books, but there's been no mention of Xombi that I've seen.  That's a shame because it strikes me as a book that does everything a comic ought to.  It's a satisfying story within itself, starring a well rounded character of an underrepresented minority (but doesn't make a big deal of that fact), it's a tale of breathtaking imagination with no reliance on superheroes and gives you something you can't find anywhere else.  Oh, and it's beautiful to boot.