The premise here -- the formation of an undercover superhuman task force -- is a solid one. The problem is in the execution. In an attempt to foster an atmosphere of mystery and tension, writer Joe Kelly leaves the reader with a number of distracting questions, the greatest of which is how the Elite's new benefactor enters into the picture. There's a shocking level of violence at play here that sets this apart from traditional super-hero storytelling, and the artists convey it well. I'm intrigued by this new book, but I'm also worried there's not going to be a grounded quality that will allow the reader to connect with it beyond a simple "coolness" factor.
A pair of master assassins, the Blood Brothers, are recruiting members for their exlusive club of the world's deadliest killers. They send out the call for "tryouts," but the membership application process for this particular club is rather nasty. After assessing their final pledges, the Brothers instruct them to engage in a battle royale to the death, and only two are left standing. What they don't know is that a mysterious and unusual philanthropist is backing a new metahuman team whose goal is to go undercover in the world of super-villains.
Mahnke's intense style brings a whole lot of edge to these weird and dark characters, and that's exactly what the book needs. The bloody chaos in which the characters are emerged is presented with an unflinching approach. The Kasumi design is a simple but striking one, though it does remind me more than a little of another assassin who was recently introduced into the DC Universe -- Scarab, over in Robin. Mahnke's art here reminds me a little Frank (New X-Men) Quitely's style, and the Major Disaster death scene showed a Jose Luis (Superman Inc.) Garcia-Lopez influence. The colors reinforce the dark and ugly atmosphere in which the action unfolds.
I think what most interests me about this book is how the edgier characters and the brighter ones with a more whitebread background are going to interact. This is an introductory issue, so those conflicts haven't arisen yet. But I'm genuinely interested in seeing how the Flash, for example, justifies his work with the team. This isn't his style, and it's bound to have an effect on him.
Kelly's inclusion of some recognizable denizens of the deadlier side of the DC Universe demonstrates there's still a love of the super-hero genre at play here. But ultimately, this is the super-hero equivalent of black ops, of nasty missions that need doing for noble reasons. There's a lot of potential for interesting ethical conflicts here.
The characters are extreme, and so far, that's pretty much all we've seen of them. I need to see some normalcy in these characters before long. Kelly's introduction of a major new player here -- a Ra's Al Ghul-like figure who is helping the team infiltrate the underworld -- could have been a lot clearer. He comes from out of nowhere, and while I don't need his whole backstory in the first issue, some information would have been helpful. I felt left out of the loop.
