I’m not familiar with Spencer, but I’d heard good things about his writing, so I was looking forward to the new team. Sadly, this issue and the .1 that preceded it were both extremely disappointing. The script moves the characters around like sock-puppets; none of their actions feels character driven, or seems to organically grow out of what has come before. It’s all played very melodramatically, straining to find over-arching significance or pluck profound sentiments but lacking any foundation to support their weight. I honestly almost tossed it aside part way through, the flag-waving and jingoism was so jarring. The most charitable reading is that maybe he was trying to capture the zaniness of a Saturday morning cartoon; but if so, it was just too heavy-handed to succeed.

The art was serviceable, but not particularly noteworthy, though the cluttered feel may well have more to do with the script than the artist. If Eaton had managed to transcend this, it might have salvaged the issue to some extent, but no such luck. Ultimately, the best thing about this was Adi Granov’s typically pretty cover. They say you can’t judge a book by its cover — that’s unfortunately very true in this case.

When Brubaker left, I had decided to stick with this book at least long enough to see what
Warren Ellis does with it when he comes on board… but I hated this
issue so much I’m really having second thoughts.