by Randy Lander

THE TWILIGHT EXPERIMENT #1 "Inherit the World" DC Comics/Wildstorm Productions imprint Writers: Jimmy Palmiotti & Justin Gray Artist/Cover: Juan Santacruz Colors: Jose Luis Roger Letters: Phil Balsman Editors: Bob Harras & Kristy Quinn Price: $2.95 US/$4.50 CAN Gray and Palmiotti have created a number of interesting, new projects for comics in the past few years: The Resistance. 21 Down. The Monolith. Of course, we all know what happens to 99% of new projects in this market, which means that all too many of their stories have been frustratingly unfinished or rushed to a conclusion. Thus, the six-issue miniseries, with its guaranteed conclusion, is probably the best format for their creations. The Twilight Experiment, the aforementioned miniseries, actually doesn't grab me as much as previous efforts like 21 Down or The Resistance, but then, neither of those books really grabbed me right at the outset either, and while I wasn't blown away by Twilight Experiment, I was certainly intrigued by their more science-fiction take on the concept of superheroes, in the vein of books like Supreme Power or Warren Ellis's superhero comics. A really great first issue is a tough thing to deliver, as the creative team must walk the line between providing the reader with enough information to want them to come back and yet also providing enough story that they're not just deluging the reader with concepts, characters and information. The Twilight Experiment runs a little lean, such that we really don't know what the series is going to be about yet, but there is just enough to intrigue me, with a paramedic who seems to be showing superhuman abilities, a young boy who is the son of one of the world's great heroes and hints that a superhuman cataclysm several years ago might not be as finished as it appears to be at first. This first issue of The Twilight Experiment focuses on the last great battle between a superhuman madman named The Righteous and his foes, the First Light. However, while the focus is on a giant superhuman battle, we really only get glimpses of the battle itself. Instead, our point of view belongs to outside observers, like a young girl whose sister is killed in the fallout of the fight or a young boy whose mother is one of those who falls in battle. It's clear that both of our POV characters are somehow special themselves, but for the moment, they're just observers, and the outside view of a superhero cataclysm is an interesting change from our usual viewpoint into these kind of events. If you're going to do big superhero stuff, even if it's mostly on the periphery, you need an artist who can "wow" the audience, and Juan Santacruz is certainly that. His work has a clean, "animated" look to it that reminds me of guys like Cameron Stewart or Phil Bond, but with super detail to match up with it. The crowded city streets looking like a disaster area in the wake of a superhuman battle, the sleek satellite home of Michael and the detail on the special ops soldiers at the end are all good examples of this kind of thing. I also have to credit Juan Luis Roger with some strong color choices, especially the eerie blue glow of the space station or the stark black and white (with red) flashback to Rene's encounter with a domestic disturbance that really brings the brutality of that moment to life. So far, The Twilight Experiment looks like a story about the survivors of a superhero event years ago, specifically two of them with direct connections to that story. The human element of these survivors, whether it's the gritty and affecting tale of Rene's job as a paramedic or the absolutely tragic longing of a boy for his mother in Michael's story, is what this first issue is really about, and while the plot remains a bit sketchy, the actual moment-to-moment writing is strong. Of course, the last couple pages introduce a bit of a bombshell that could significantly change the story as we see it so far, and I'm curious to see where the creators go from here. 8/10 Email Randy Lander comments about this review.