I hadn’t put this on my standing order because I really wasn’t convinced by the solicitation, even though I love this concept and thought the Milligan series was a fantastic read.  However I saw the last copy on the shelf of my LCS and, since it was a $2.99 title, I gave it a shot.  Unfortunately it just made me want to go back and re-read those Milligan/Pulido mini-masterpieces again.

I have no doubt that editorial viewed this solely as a way of capitalising on the launch of the TV series, and I can understand that completely from a business standpoint.  That’s why you’ve got a simple, straightforward caper that seems to forgo everything that’s gone before, although it’s written by character creator Len Wein.  The solicitation isn’t clear if this is meant to be the classic Christopher Chance character or an adaptation of the TV version.  I’m guessing the latter as there’s none of the old master-of-disguise plot threads.  To compound that disappointment, there’s absolutely none of the depth of the early 2000’s series either.  I know we were never going to revisit Milligan’s reflective, relevant, post 9/11 opus, but this just comes across as a total backwards step.  They could have turned out a story that was still simple and action oriented but that still had a sense of originality.  Instead there’s just nothing to set this out from the crowd, including the main art.  We’ve seen it all before.

There is however just one little caveat, one thing that means this book stays in the collection.  It’s just a few short pages in the back, but the backup is at least drawn by Chris Sprouse.  Now there’s a man who we never see enough (weren’t we supposed to see some new Tom Strong from him late last year?), yet he brightens up an otherwise dull first issue.  The rest of it, I’ve already almost forgotten.