There's one very very minor thing that I really liked in this issue, and forgive me for threadjacking this from the writer's unexpected and serendipitous posts: the artwork on Pointer's costume. With two recent artists on the MCP series and a third now drawing the Ultimate version of the costume, this fourth version is really something. The thing that particularly impressed me was how the red portion of the costume is colored in a mutedly shaded blue when viewed from underwater. That really blew me away. It's a very very minor thing but it just sort of popped out of the page for me and made me appreciate much of the minute details of the art, flipping back and forth through the pages (yes ignoring the writing, sorry Fred) and just appreciating the technique, coloring, layout, shading, inks, everything, very impressive.

OK back to the writing: Never having read the title, I was concerned it would be too heavy to read. I was dreading the overblown royal/godspeak language of thees and thous that has always turned me off to characters like Hercules and Thor and even Namor. Byrne did it right with the Northern Gods and with Snowbird, but it can be easily mishandled in a corny and unreadable way. Fred v.Lente got it right, too. I was happily surprised to find a mixture of realistic solemnity and comic moments in the dialogue. I also liked how this was the set-up book for the rest of the arc: setting up the team, introducing the players and purpose of the story. I felt as if the writer had planned out the arc and put some real thought into the pacing, development and presentation of the story. It made me feel respected as a reader that he took the time to do all that. I closed the cover with a smile, eager to read the next issue.

Love,
rplass