by
Scott Beatty (Author), Chris Sprouse
(Illustrator)
Publisher
: WildStorm (October 7, 2008)
Softcover,
192 pages
This
review was a long time coming, as I completely forgot that I had this series at
all. Only during by semi-annual cleanse of my collection did I stumbled across
Number of the Beast at the bottom of a box of otherwise forgettable comics.
It's a rare purchase for me, not because it deals with mainstream superheroes,
but because I purchased a bundle of the comics, 8 issues bound in a bag, rather
than the graphic novel. I almost never do that and it must’ve been during a
splurge at one of the half-off deals the rapidly sinking comic markets around
here were having. As such I picked it up for five bucks, tossed it on a pile,
and probably forgot about it three minutes later. Thus like finding an extra
twenty in your pocket you forgot about, this series was a joyful find.
For
those who remember Wildstorm, they
were originally an independent spin-off universe from Image comics. Titles
included Stormwatch, The Authority,
WildCats, and were all set in the same universe - there was also a number
of independent creator-owned comics, but were talking about the main universe
here. The big draw was that things changed in this Universe. The Authority took over the USA at one
point. Superheroes had a major effect on what was happening in the world. Then
sales flagged and the entire line was brought up by D.C. Comics. Then similar
to when D.C. bought up the Charleston line, they really had no idea what to do
with this new universe. Answer, blow it up and integrate the parts they wanted
into the main D.C. universe.
There
were three series leading to the end. The final one being this Number of the
Beast. Many readers have complained that for an Armageddon story in a
semi-popular universe, the majority of the action doesn’t involve any of the
main players. True, Stormwatch, The Authority, and so on don’t appear until the
fifth issue, but I still enjoyed this series for what it did right. First of
all, the end is caused by villains and presumed dead heroes and events from
previous in the WildStorm universe. We see the return of the High, the Eilidon,
various alien races, and a containment system used to house most of the first wave
of posthumans after WWII.
The
basic plot is that the remains of the High are dumped into this containment
system, which he proves to be be too powerful to be controlled by. He breaks
out, along with the remainder of these heroes from the 1940s - who haven’t aged
since then. This starts a chain-reaction which results in the United States
launching a barrage of weaponized clones of the High to wipe out the remains of
any post-human teams. As a result much fighting breaks out, and the entire
world is scourged of nearly all life. Hey, you knew it would be an apocalypse
tale.
If
the main players of this universe are relegated to bit parts, I rather enjoyed
this story. The only snag I found was the ridiculous reason why all those
heroes from the 1940s were essentially trapped in a Matrix-like suspended
animation. But the violence was decent, the art engaging, and I liked seeing
references to past WildStorm stories I’ve read in the past. Is it the next Kingdom Come? Not at all, but I found it
a fun, light read, that took itself seriously. Certainly worth a look for the
right price.
For more readings, try books by Rex Hurst.
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