Finally, I get this series. For those of you who don’t know (or are waiting for a trade edition), The Twelve is the story of 12 (duh) unrelated minor superheroes (mostly unpowered or weakly powered) who are joined together in one way only. The 12 heroes joined the U.S. war effort against the Nazi’s and were placed in suspended animation until the present day. They were discovered and brought to a military-run house to live, treated as enigmatic heroes.

Of course, the premise is a gimmick. Suspended animation has been used for years – from the re-appearance of Captain America to the passage of Woody Allen to the future in Sleeper. What makes The Twelve special and interesting is that the team of heroes has absolutely nothing in common (except for their shared fate). Some are essentially unpowered masked vigilantes. One is a bona fide superhero. One is a demon-possessed spirit of vengeance. And so on.

Of course, the twelve seek out family members. And, of course, most family members are either dead or elderly. Because of this, the twelve are forced together. And this short series is designed to examine this premise – what if a small number of hardcore oddballs are forced together by a shared fate?

The stories are great, but this is the best issue so far. One character tries to act as a masked vigilante, and another (the demon-possessed woman) seems to have committed a murder of vengeance. We don’t get to know these characters in detail, but we learn about them in odd chunks. We are flies on the wall, but our view is limited.

The art is fantastic comic book art. There is nothing revolutionary here – no post-modern, neo-classical, photo-realistic, or any other trendy art techniques. Just classic, but skillful, art that might fit in from the golden age to current days.

The Twelve is a winner. Check it out (and don’t forget Issue #0, which wasn’t necessary, but provides a golden-age digest style book featuring several of the characters).