Cosmic Odyssey #1

Cosmic Odyssey is a fun event comic, one that I can strongly recommend.

(Spoilers ahead)

Here's the basic gist. Thanks to Metron's probing of inter-dimensional space the personification of the Anti-Life Equation has targeted the Milk Way for destruction. It has dispatched several aspects of itself to four star systems and if any two are destroyed that's it for the galaxy. Darkseid, the discoverer of this upcoming calamity, recognizes that he alone cannot stop Anti-Life personified. And so he allies himself with Highfather and gathers many heroes in order to save the galaxy and quite possibly the universe.

Pairs of heroes are then dispatched to deal with the various threats to the designated star systems. Naturally the heroes succeed and the galaxy is saved (though not before Darkseid tries to gain unlimited power, again.)

But the plot beats, as cool as they are, find themselves subordinate to character development. I want people to enjoy this book for themselves but the following characters are handled rather nicely and/or get some excellent development; John Stewart, Orion and Batman are good examples of this general principle.

Mignola's art is pretty darn good except for some random panels, particularly some shots of Darkseid.

Cosmic Odyssey is fun, imaginative and puts the characters through their paces.