Kinetic #2

April 24, 2004

Quick Rating: Average
Title: Crash

Tom Morell is just instants away from death… or is he?

Writer: Kelley Puckett
Artist: Warren Pleece
Colors: Brian Haberlin
Letters: Pat Brosseau
Editor: Matt Idelson
Cover Art: Tomer Hanuka
Publisher: DC Focus

I’ll be up front with you guys, this is not going to be a very detailed review, because the things that happen in this issue are so bizarre that it’s almost impossible to talk about them without spoiling them. At the end of last issue, frail, sickly Tom Morrell was face-to-face with the grill of a speeding mack truck. He still is when this issue opens. In fact, he still is for the first seven pages, which gives us the classic “life flashing before his eyes” sequence that fills in the gaps of Tom’s life, illuminating his relationship with his mother more than anything else. What happens after that sequence though… I just can’t say because it gets too weird. By the end of the issue you are still left with absolutely no idea what’s going on.

Often, this is a good thing. Anything that makes you anxious to read the next issue of a comic book is generally a point in that comic’s favor. This comic gets a little frustrating, though. In terms of pacing, this issue makes Ultimate Spider-Man look like a car at Daytona, and by the time you get to the major cliffhanger at the end of issue two, you can’t help but feel that this would have been the perfect place to end issue number one.

Warren Pleece’s art is pretty good, even totally saving one sequence that otherwise would have been totally incomprehensible if Pleece wasn’t able to make his faces sufficiently distinctive. The same old problem with the DC Focus titles lingers on, though – the same color palette and same lettering style in each title continue to hurt.

That’s really all that can be said about this issue without blowing the totally bizarre, out of left field twist it takes ten pages in or so. If you guys enjoy it, come back Wednesday when it lands in stores and try to explain it to me.

Rating: 5/10