Let me start off by saying that I've grown to hate the nostalgia movement in comics, and even the properties I enjoyed, like G.I. Joe or Transformers, are a guilty pleasure at this point. I also have no fondness at all for Voltron; I remember watching it, but mostly I hated it at the time. So it surprises me that I found the zero issue of the new book to be a pretty solid foundation for a new series, if a bit familiar in its approach. Jolley introduces the lead characters in a way that does not exclude the new fans (if in fact any of these nostalgia books actually have those) and the artwork by the guys at Dreamwave is very pretty to look at. It's not for me, but if the nostalgia trend isn't making you grind your teeth at this point, Voltron might be worth a look.
It's an old staple in comics, movies, television, pretty much any entertainment medium: the gathering of the team issue. Jolley starts off his Voltron series with a sort of "Dirty Dozen"-ish montage of characters, as five unlikely heroes are selected by a desperate military organization. The notion that this dangerous edge which makes the characters so unlikely a choice is exactly what makes them perfect for the job is an old chestnut, but it's one I like, and so I didn't really have much trouble with it.
In addition, though there's not a lot of room for Jolley to make an impression with these characters, he does establish them pretty well in only a page or two each. Holgersson in particular gets to make some fun generic tough-guy remarks, and Keith Konage comes across as a modern-day renaissance man in his sequence. I don't really remember who was the leader of the group in the TV show, or know if they'll follow that path in the comic, but one of these guys seems like the obvious choice.
The artwork is pretty and brightly colored, as I've come to expect from Dreamwave. Probably the highlight of the whole thing is the holography and technology surrounding Darrell Stoker when they come to get him, but there's also a pretty strong martial arts fight with Konage and some generally beautiful background work on San Francisco, The Brig and Planet Arus. In fact, the production designs here put me more in mind of a videogame than a comic, with a lot of time spent on depicting lush backgrounds.
It's really hard to judge from such a brief intro whether or not the series will rise above its nostalgia roots and become what it needs to be, which is much different from the dated and formulaic source material, but I have to admit that Voltron #0 gets things off to a promising start. It's not even remotely my cup of tea, and yet I find myself mildly curious to see where this creative team is going, which is about the highest praise I can offer up for a genre and a property that I not only don't have much interest in, but actually hold in disdain.
