Jenny Sparks #1 – Tom King, Writer; Jeff Spokes, Artist
Ray – 9.5/10
Ray: Tom King continues to plumb just about every corner of the DC Universe for stand-alone comics, and now he’s taking on what might be his biggest challenge yet – the Wildstorm Universe. This 90s world has had plenty of false starts and reboots over the year, currently playing a key role in Outsiders. And he’s taking on one of the most complex characters from it – Jenny Sparks, the spirit of the 20th century. We already saw the new incarnation of this “Century Baby” in that other title, so what’s Jenny doing still hanging around? Well, mostly living it up and having casual sex, giving her the vibe of a female cosmic Constantine. But that’s mostly because she’s busy waiting – for a crisis big enough for the heroes to call her in.
That crisis manifests in the form of Captain Atom, who makes a very interesting choice for an antagonist. After all, his origin story is rather horrific and could easily drive a man off the deep end, and there have been plans to turn him into a villain before. Here, he seems unstable – almost disassociating – as he weaves a trail of chaos around the city, waxing obsessively about being a God and killing random people. That causes Batman to call in Jenny – who fights him in a brutal segment that ends abruptly and in a very unexpected way. It seems clear that this comic is going to be told in a non-linear style, because much of the story in this first issue doesn’t really follow either of these two.
Instead, it follows a collection of random people who weave in and out of the story. An old man who finds out he has cancer. A professor struggling with her dating life. A smug agent who has some hidden depths. A Judge with a complex personal life. And a cheerful bartender unburdened by the world around him. How do all of then factor into the story? That’s not clear yet, but they start to converge by the end of the issue as Captain Atom’s scheme escalates. I don’t think this issue requires you to know much of what happened in the Wildstorm Universe, but the lore of it definitely does elevate things in an interesting way. Another fascinating King read that will be slow to reveal its secrets, no doubt.
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GeekDad received this comic for review purposes.
