If by some chance you’re reading this review and you haven’t picked up an issue of Xombi yet–just go out and pick them up. If somehow, someway, you’re still fence-sitting on this–hey, knock it off, go with your instincts and pick it up. Pick up issue #5. Pick up any issues you can get your hands on. A trade collection of this hasn’t even been solicited yet, so it’s unclear as to whether it’ll ever be collected anyway, so do yourself a favor and find the “floppies” while you can find ’em.

This is the second-to-last issue of arguably the best series being published right now. This is the most imaginative comic out there, in my opinion; it brims with ideas to the point that it’s overflowing with so many interesting concepts that every few panels you’ll find yourself pausing and imagining how some of these ideas and magical entities would play out over time in their rich fictional universe. There’s a real sense of depth here and it’s a shame that, at least for the foreseeable future, we’re only going to have one more issue to explore this world.

If there’s a flaw with this series, it’s that we STILL feel that there’s so much more to learn about the main characters. The title on the book refers to only one guy, but this is really a team book (much like Captain Britain & the MI13, another series that was cancelled too soon). Still, the five issues so far have been packed with so much story and information–there’s simply been no time for John Rozum to pedantically explain the entirety of everybody’s backstory. The issues we’ve gotten have played out like the best, fullest example of how to portray these characters’ actions in 20-22 pages. In other words, issue #1 of this series may as well have been issue #30–so, again, there’s little sense in anyone holding off on buying issue #5 if they haven’t read the previous issues–but as a reader you’ll hardly care about feeling a bit lost, because this is a world you WANT to get lost in.

And what can I say about Frazer Irving? He’s one of the best artists out there, and his skills have made every panel of Xombi seem all the more engrossing, moody and meaningful. I’d be hard-pressed to name an artist who’s doing better, more unique, more high-quality work right now. He’s the perfect artist for this series, which really deserves a Vol. 2 as soon as possible (DC, please, are you listening?).