Broken Frontier

If our heroes could ever stop bickering with each other they might actually find a way to send all those demons back to their own dimension.

Dimensional portals are allowing demons and other unwanted beings into the world of the Planetary Brigade. As the team members argue and poke fun at each other, they finally find the main portal. Captain Brilliant keeps in contact with the whole team and soon they all converge to handle the threat. Each hero brings their own unique talents to the table, but this situation proves a little more difficult than just "hit it as hard as you can." Because this isn’t just a simple portal to another dimension, this portal happens to be connected to an innocent human being and closing it up isn’t as simple as him wanting it to happen.

Well, it took Giffen and DeMatteis an issue to get a hold of this book but they have put their own stamp on it with this issue. Their particular brand of witty banter is back and in full force. Whereas in the first issue the focus was more on individual relationships within the group and the one-on-one relationships, this issue brings the whole team together and the levels of sarcasm and wit go up exponentially. The dialogue is funny and biting as each character takes turns making fun of the other. The characters play to their most simple stereotypes to aid the humor, and the pacing compliments it perfectly. The book moves at a brisk pace, building a nice momentum and not slowing down.

One thing that helped out the first issue’s storytelling was using multiple artists to do individual scenes. In that issue, it helped to differentiate between the scenes as they each showcased a small group of the Brigadiers. This issue did not break down the story in such a way, instead focusing on a central piece of action. However, whereas in the last issue it was easily noticeable when the artists would change, thankfully, it is not so evident here. Each artist handles themselves nicely, never deviating from a particular look or feel for any of the characters, each of which is easily identifiable. They each handle the action of the book with a good sense of skill and, admirably, manage to keep solid pace and sense of storytelling. Nothing stands out as exceptional, just good superhero artwork and storytelling.

That last line really brings out a small problem with the book. It just isn’t that original. Fans of Giffen and DeMatteis’ Justice League and Defenders books will be right at home here. All of it is vintage stuff from them, but in the end, unlike even Hero Squared, this book does not bring anything new to the table. Even worse, for anyone who has read Hero Squared, we already know the fate of the characters so there’s no real reason to get attached to any of them.