Broken Frontier

Old/new heroes return to life to thrive through the cosmos once again in an all new anthology series.

Writer/artist Jim Starlin returns to a subject matter he truly enjoys with yet another adventure in space, and this time he is resurrecting some old heroes in the process. His latest effort is Mystery in Space, and this series is conceptually built around a theme of life and death. This is Jim’s first work for a major publisher in quite some time and I am glad to see him flex some muscles here.

Mystery in Space is approached from a unique point of view as a post mortem is being conducted on old time hero Captain Comet. The good Captain finally met his end while he was working for the L.E.G.I.O.N. and his death was horrific given how his body was burnt into a crisp. With his last dying breath, the Captain willed his life energies into space to seek salvation in another body. Fortunately for him he found a lifeless soul drifting in space and he tried to bond with it, but when the merging began the lifeless form repelled him. The Captain was whisked away and the lifeless form then became sentient again and took up its previous incarnation known as the Weird.

Now there is indeed a mystery here and the big question that begs to be answered is how both of these characters are intrinsically linked to each other. Personally speaking I thought Starlin’s idea to present two separate characters and link them in this manner was very clever. His writing here is compelling enough for my tastes and I liked how he utilized plot elements from the main story to resurrect an old character like the Weird. Jim’s definitely still a talented creator in his right and he’s cut his teeth on space concepts like Captain Comet all throughout his career, so this project is definitely in the right hands.

Another pair of capable hands assisting Jim on this series is artist Shane Davis. His storytelling is exceptionally strong in the majority of pages comprising the Captain Comet segment. He’s also the type of artist that enjoys filling in his scenes with tons of minute details that I thought recalled the days of a classic book like Atari Force. Shane’s work was certainly enhanced by inker Matt Banning and colorist Jeremy Cox, so I felt that helped give the added extra punch. I should also briefly mention that Jim Starlin penciled the Weird segment and did an admirable job illustrating the 16 pages of story to reintroduce the character back into the DCU.

When this series does wrap up, all eight issues of Mystery in Space should be a nice addition to Jim Starlin’s resume. He’s the type of creator that truly enjoys crafting this kind of adventure in space, and this series is running the gamut of universal themes of life and death. The first issue is off to a good start, and there is indeed a mystery to be solved so the game is now afoot.