Telling around 2/3 of a comic in action and narrative boxes can be screwed up pretty easily, and the second I cracked this one open, an initial wince of trepidation walked me into the story. Thankfully, writer Kevin VanHook uses some of the best word economy I’ve seen, and this was actually a very balanced read to lead into this new six-issue mini. Red Tornado ranks among my favorite character designs, and he’s a great concept that VanHook seems to get.
The artwork by Jose Luisà and J.P. Mayer does him justice, too, in most cases, though it definitely excelled best in the spreads and splash pages. Emotionally, a lot of the characters came off a bit flat, which actually floated the tone of the book a bit for me given the android nature of the title character.
Topically, it took me back to how much I really loved 52 the mad scientist villains of the DCU, particularly T.O. Morrow. The story itself seems to be drifting into one of those classic goto Pinocchio/Frankenstein concepts a la Dr. Light/Megaman or Hank Pym/Ultron. It’s the equivalent of of a base hit for me as far as issue #1’s go, so I’ll probably give #2 a go.