Giant monsters fight giant robots. That's the core of Tokyo Storm Warning, the rest is just filling in the blanks between the big fights and the nifty-looking, Japanese-culture-influenced stars of the show. As it turns out, Ellis eases the reader into the concept, setting up a possible cause of the divergence of the timeline that created this dynamic in the first couple of pages and then setting the lead character in front of the reader to get us to know her. Really, we're well into the book before the monsters and robots start fighting, but regardless, the sense of fun and imaginative spirit is clear throughout.
Ellis's story follows a familiar pattern, as a new recruit is brought in to an established military program. While Zoe Flynn is familiar with the history of the giant robots (or Arcangels, as they're called) and the program that the Japanese have built around them, her role as an outsider lets Ellis unobtrusively drop in exposition alongside the character-building, and the result is that the book is paced fairly quickly and gets a lot accomplished in its first issue.
I'm actually a little surprised at the depth of the characterization here, given the space and the style that would seem the most obvious for this kind of concept. But Zoe and her Japanese counterpart Renji are fleshed out into interesting characters thanks to Ellis's usual skill with dialogue, and much of the story is given over to explaining where the Arcangels came from and how they work instead of just launching into a big fight between the robots and the monsters.
This works not just because it gives a strong context and interesting characters, but because it let's the reader build up a few expectations before dropping in the big impressive visuals. Raiz and Currie's work is terrific throughout, with detailed backdrops and technology, or nicely detailed people (I especially like the little drop curl of hair on Zoe's face), but it's the big explosive stuff that really impresses. The appearance of the first monster is frankly spectacular, ditto the first look at an Arcangel, and Raiz and Currie don't spare the ink on the bloody after-effects of missiles on monsters. Currie has done work most recently on Ultimates with Bryan Hitch, and Raiz's work here is actually pretty close to that level.
This is probably the strongest start of any of Ellis's "three and out" mini-series for Wildstorm, and it certainly comes across as a fun idea by talented creators. I would have been satisfied with 22 pages of monsters and robots fighting when the art is as good as this, but Ellis has also provided an intriguing backstory, a couple of mysteries and some solid characters to wrap around the high concept.
