The Unexpected #7 - DC Comics

THE UNEXPECTED No. 7, February 2019

As book-length pitched-battles go, Steve Orlando’s narrative for Issue Seven of “The Unexpected” must surely have delighted the vast majority of its disconcertingly dwindling 7,547 readers in December 2018 with its fantastic mix of highly-anticipated fist-fights and duplicitous backstabbing. True, the comic’s twenty-page bout of non-stop pugilism doesn’t debatably take this series’ overall “Call Of The Unknown” storyline all that much further forward, but what with Mandrakk the Dark Monitor smacking the titular characters all over the place, and the Bad Samaritan making a triumphant return so as to sock Colin Nomi squarely in his jaw, such a lack of plot progress is easily forgivable.

Indeed, this book’s only debatable disappointment is that Alden Quench’s rematch against “Creation’s Guardian” is frustratingly cut all-too short by Dax Novu effortlessly thrusting his gnarled hand straight through the chest of Neon the Unknown, and then turning his not inconsiderable supernatural abilities upon the “mysterious man empowered by the Fires of Destruction” who was supposedly his loyal servant; “I’ve already freed myself from the Dark Multiverse. I stand at the threshold of creation, and you, Quench, are too late to mater… You’re nothing but trash.”

Hawkman and Firebrand are also given plenty to do in this frantically-paced free-for-all, repeatedly hurling themselves against Mandrakk for all their worth, and demonstrating precisely why it took all the strength of Superman to knock Grant Morrison’s co-creation into the Overvoid. Carter Hall seems to suffer particularly badly during these bouts against “the vampire god”, with the archaeologist’s famous wings being partially torn asunder during one especially nasty attempt to distract the fanged killer of a Tempus Fuginaut.

Adding lots of dynamic action, palpable tension and buckets of blood to the proceedings are Ronan Cliquet’s well-pencilled panels. Initially it is arguably hard to see just how Mandrakk is going to be able to withstand the combined might of The Unexpected and their friendly flying Justice Leaguer, especially when he so quickly turns upon such a powerful ally as Quench as well. Yet such is the sheer power with which the Brazilian artist imbues the Dark Monitor within the space of a few scenes, that it soon becomes crystal clear to any perusing bibliophile just whose ‘team’ actually outmatches whose.

Storytellers: Ronan Cliquet & Steve Orlando, and Colors: Jeromy Cox