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JLA/HAVEN: ARRIVAL
Recommended (7/10)
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DC Comics
Writers: Ashley-Jayne Nicolaus & Matthew P. Schuster
Pencils: Ariel Olivetti
Colors: Rob Ro & Alex Bleyaert
Letters: Bill Oakley
Editor: Mike Carlin
Price: $5.95 US/$9.95 CAN |
That's something you don't see every day... one of the top comics publishers giving two rookie writers a high-profile launch. Pairing Nicolaus & Schuster and their novel concept with the powerfully detailed art of Ariel Olivetti made for a nice match. The only real problem with this comic book is that at its heart, it's a marketing tool for the upcoming Haven: The Broken City limited series. And it takes some gall to ask fans to pay six to 10 bucks for a teaser/gimmick. There's no reason this couldn't have served as the first issue of the series.
Haven, an alien city travelling through the cosmos, suffers damage and has to crashland... on Earth, of course. The JLA rushes to the scene to save lives and to try tostop the massive ship from plowing through more communities, only to find the city boasts its own contingent of metahuman champions... in spades. Despite language barriers, the heroes work together, but deep within the bowels of the alien city, further threats are freed from their cages as a result of the crash.
This is some of the strongest work I've seen from Olivetti. I find his character designs for the alien heroes and villains compelling, but in an understated sort of way. The crisp paper quality and colors really bring out the strengths in his work as well. My only gripe with the art is that Olivetti doesn't clearly convey the continued movement of Haven in the latter half of the book, even though the heroes' efforts to stave its progress represent the central conflict of this book.
This issue sets up the foundation for Nicolaus and Schuster's upcoming Haven limited series, and it's a strong one. Establishing a sanctuary/city for alien refugees in the United States makes a lot of sense in a super-hero universe. It offers a rich supply of storytelling potential, from political plotlines to sociological speculation. The seeds for such stories are planted here, and my general disinterest in Haven has been transformed into anticipation.
This book -- packaged as a one-shot -- ends on a cliffhanger, and it's thoroughly irksome. The story concepts, characters and art are enough to carry me over to the limited series, and this gimmick did little for me but annoy. An expensive one-shot like this should feature some degree of resolution, and far too many plot threads are hanging loose by the issue's end.
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