Broken Frontier

With a ten person roster, the JSA All-Stars are hardly a small faction, and so this first issue is jam packed with information as writer Matt Sturges tries to give the reader a little something of each hero to sink their teeth into. The result is an impressive attempt, better than expected given the size of the team. He wastes no time in sending the team into action against the Novyj Soviet, a paramilitary group with designs on Stargirl. Sturges explores the themes of leadership and places the focus on Magog as commander of the new group. Tagged with the labels “rookies” and “farm team” of the JSA, the title promises to show us heroes with something to prove to the world.

The book was reminiscent of some of the better X-Men stories of Chris Claremont's heyday, where there was a giant cast of characters, plenty of action, even good old training sequences, but also good character development and subplots. Even though the book was 30 pages of story, there is a lot packed in. The villains could have been a little better defined, though I am not a follower of the JSA line of books, so it might be more familiar to regular readers.

Freddie Williams II is a magician. His work is a cross between Bart Sears and George Perez, with the bulky, angular muscular renderings of the former, and exquisite detail, longer camera angles and shear work ethic of the latter. All this without lifting a pencil. All of Williams' work is computer rendered, but it doesn't look like the overwrought computer animation. It looks like pen and ink, with great line widths and darks, but these are computer strokes, not brush strokes. It's magnificent to behold, and makes me want to get his instructional book on drawing digitally, not that I could ever hope to draw so well, but maybe to get a sense for the magicians' secrets. I am no superhero junkie by any means, but this is what a superhero team book should look like. Magnificent.

This is a strong launch for a spin-off book. Even with limited experience of the source material, Sturges and Williams provided an entertaining, high octane debut for their band of heroes. Well worth a look for those with a love of the team superhero books.