Stormwatch #21

I jumped on board with Stormwatch at issue 19 after learning that a new writer, Jim Starlin, was going to take over the book. I had not read Stormwatch before but I am always on the look out to a promising change that could result in a good new direction for a comic. So I gave it a try.

The first issue was billed accurately as a reset of the entire Stormwatch and Earth based timeline. The Stormwatch that had existed before this issue was made extinct by a shift in the timeline that led up to it. Technically, this also shifted the entire DC line, but it would be too much trouble to get into that. We learn that the group that shifted the timeline did so to erase the previous Stormwatch. They probably were not as concerned about the Joker and Wonder Woman.

But since the timeline was reset, the writer is given a chance for a full reset of the entire comic, a rare chance to reboot an ongoing book. Starlin treats issue 19 as a traditional first issue or reboot. We get the back story of who shifted the timeline, and the back story of a group that is going to reform Stormwatch. The two parties are at crossed purposes and are set on a collision course. The Kollective, the group that reset the timeline, and the Shadow Lords, the group that is going to restart Stormwatch, both see themselves as given the task of regulating the galaxy and apparently both register any interference in this as something to be dealt with. So both set out to deal with each other. However, since both exist outside the physical realm of corporeal beings, they need proxies to carry out their plans. In this case, the Shadow Lords have the new Stormwatch they had been reorganizing and reconstructing after discovering the someone had reset a timeline. The Kollective, the group responsible for the reset, needs to get something a little more underhanded achieved, and so have enlisted the help of the galaxy's most dangerous murderous psychopath, Lobo. Whaever they intend, it does not appear to be pretty.

We do not get much time to meet Stormwatch other than learning who they are. The first issue sets up the conflicts, and the second issue dumps a team of Stormwatch operatives onto Douli-7 to track down the source of a strange energy that is connected to the timeline reset. So the second issue involves a bunch of fights on the planet and the introduction of two competing races, the Camonites and the Bruticus. These two groups are strangely earthlike in their evil make up. The Caimonites are fundamentalist, religious zealots with an army and the Bruticus are corporate neo-fascists with an army. The two sides don't get along and are fighting a brutal intergalactic war. Apparently, both intend on enslaving all other planets so of course can't tolerate the other's existence. Stormwatch drops into the middle of this on Douli-7.

So we get to issue 21. This issue focuses somewhat on the team's psychic, Julie, as she is there to track the psychic trail of the energy signature the Shadow Lords want Stormwatch to investigate. We see her go and interact with her bodyguard, Weird. She then gets into a discussion with the Kollective that show themselves to her to ask a favor. Julie does not know of the existence of the Shadow Lords. She does not know that Stormwatch is in reality sponsored by them. So when she meets the Kollective, she does not know their role in her own battle. What she does and what happens sets up the next issue.

The story itself isn't bad. The two mysterious groups with their own agendas in outer pace working through others are mysterious and their role with living beings makes an interesting dynamic.. A group of super powered humans recruited by Stormwatch to serve to protect earth from threats from other planets is a different dynamic. They won't being hanging around Gotham all day, giving us an interesting sci-fi edge missing from DC's other superhero books. We also get two of the team, Apollo and Midnighter who appear to be in a relationship, which is humorous because Midnighter looks like a nightmarish NFL linebacker with a bad attitude. Seeing him tender with anyone is funny. There are some other interesting back story points about Weird and Stormwatch's ongoing recruiting. But I know little about these characters.

The fast pace of the plot has not left time for us to earn about the heroes through the plot. We jump around and get a lot of information about the conflict of the two groups regarding the timeline and what plans the Kollective has, we get a lot of fights and some interaction by the group members, but none of it has let us know who these guys are. In the first issue, we followed The Engineer around getting some internal dialogue, but just a start of it. The same thing happens with Julie in this issue. We still don't know much about her despite much of the issue centering on her. At the end of Issue 21, Lobo is in play, the Kollective is up to no good, and the Stormwatch is on distant planet about to have to deal with a big battle of some kind. But we don't know much about who will be doing the fighting.

On the way here, Starlin needed to humanize this cast a little more. We get facts but no insight, we get interesting story ideas but no character development moments, and we get a huge problem coming up but don't know enough about the cast to feel anxious our tense for their safety. As I get to the end of the issue, I look forward to knowing what happens, but I really don't feel connected enough to the team yet to feel worried or apprehensive about their fates.

So the effort is not bad, but I think the comic will struggle until the creative team can hook in the readers with stronger characterizations of the heroes and get emotional involvement in their world. The story is interesting, but we need characters we know and understand.