Danger Street #5 – Tom King, Writer; Jorge Fornes, Artist; Dave Stewart, Colorist
Ray – 9/10
Ray: This continues to be the strangest book Tom King has ever put out, a series of loosely connected vignettes centering around some of the most obscure characters in DC history. If there’s a main plot thread, it’s the death of the Danger Street Dingbat know as Good Looks, the two misfit heroes trying to purge their sin by resurrecting him, and the three surviving friends who are trying to avenge him. That is complicated by the presence of Orion—the son of Apokalips and New Genesis, who is on a mission to Earth to save the multiverse and may be only able to accomplish his goal with the body of the boy. When that brings him into conflict with Starman and Warlord, a brutal fight ensues—one that pulls in other characters and threatens the whole world. Warlord’s descent into madness as this is going on is especially compelling, similar to what we saw from King’s take on Adam Strange.
The rest of the characters often feel like they don’t quite intersect, but that doesn’t mean they don’t deliver compelling plotlines. As Lady Cop continues to try to unravel the mysteries, she starts finding herself in danger as well—but nothing like the level of danger the members of the Green Team face, being hunted down one by one by the Manhunter. Jack Ryder, currently employed as a radio shock jock and propagandist, is confronted by Batman who believes his conspiracies are inflaming tensions—or maybe, just maybe, revealing some of Batman’s dirty little secrets. We spend so little time with each of these characters that it sometimes feels like it’s hard to get any traction on them, but it also immerses us in just how confused and lost these characters are. They’re all raging against a machine that doesn’t care about them—be it on Earth, or across the cosmos. The overall structure is a bit confusing, but the world is fascinating.
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GeekDad received this comic for review purposes.
