When the new 52 books came out, they launched with the mission statement of being accessible and new reader friendly. Whilst that was certainly true with the overall line, it felt like a missed opportunity to have some stories that were the first introduction of a new superhero. We saw some examples of that with books like Superboy and Grifter, but even then it seemed like there was a focus to rush through the origin story to reach some form of status quo.
Fortunately, the first issue of The Ray does a lot to rectify that. This book is very much an origin story for the Lucien Gates. We’re introduced to our main character, how he got his powers, his supporting cast and his villains and at no point does the comic feel rushed. More importantly this doesn’t feel like the end of the development yet.
Yet more importantly the book is FUN. It comes off like the love-child of the 2010 Power Girl series and the Ultimate Spider-man series. Palmiotti and Grey write The Ray with their tongue firmly in cheek and have just enough self awareness to poke fun at the superhero tropes without it ever falling into self-parody.
Also despite it being an origin the narrative doesn’t follow the traditional set up, instead giving a lot of non-linear flashbacks to paint a picture of Lucien Gates life. Unfortunately the constant use of juxtaposition is also sometimes can leave some scenes feeling out of place and confusing. This is most apparent in the last few pages when the series’ villain is introduced. While some of the ideas are clever and interesting the introduction seems so out of place with the tone of the rest of the series that it loses some of its impact.
Fortunately Palmiotti and Grey are joined by artist Jamal Igle whose style is so clean and precise that they almost make up for any narrative issues in the script. The art is the highlight of the book and the detail Igle shows has developed leaps and bounds since his work on Supergirl.
In conclusion, this book is a fun miniseries that could use a lot of support. If you enjoy fun, accessible, continuity light stories then this is the book for you.