I’ve enjoyed the National Comics run, to a certain extent. There are a lot of fun, campy ideas, that would make good tv shows (Eternity for CBS, Looker for CW, and Rose and Thorn for ABC). The problem is that they are one shots, but both Eternity and Rose and Thorn have not offered good conclusions.

The cliffhangers at the end of Rose and Thorn and Eternity have negated a lot of the good points, just because we’re probably never going to see/read what happens next.

That said, the art in Rose and Thorn is very good. The art feels cartoony (which works for the Rose personality) but then certain panels would look good in an Animal Man style book, showing a good range from Neil Googe. The storytelling panel to panel is very good towards the beginning, but by the end either the story or the storytelling feels a bit rushed.

I’d recommend this to a certain extent. Fun, campy, intriguing, but not a ‘one shot’ in any true sense. More like a pilot (and not even one with an origin about Rose’s dark secret) that is good enough, but can’t free itself from the constraints of DC Editorial, which leaves the reader wanting just that little bit more.