The Unexpected #8 - DC Comics

THE UNEXPECTED No. 8, March 2019

Announced as far back as October 2018 that the title was being cancelled, Steve Orlando’s script for Issue Eight of “The Unexpected” at least provided its remaining 6,857 readers with the satisfaction of successfully wrapping up Neon the Unknown’s battle against Mandrakk on the planet Nil - the “capstone of the Multiverse.” However, just how exactly the matter manipulator is able to achieve this victory, considering the Dark Monitor had just previously torn Colin Nomi’s throat out, is another matter entirely, and one which will doubtless have many of this comic’s owners scratching their heads in bemusement for years to come.

For starters, the GLAAD Media Award-nominee’s narrative would have its ever-dwindling audience believe that in extinguishing their physical lives the Vampire God somehow instantly transported both the Bad Samaritan and Neon’s souls to the World Forge in order to be annihilated. This intriguing plot-twist is certainly as surprising as its action-packed ride in boiling hot lava is eye-catching, but it arguably makes little actual sense, especially when all Nomi needs to do to avoid both himself and Alden Quench being “vaporised at the core” is to simply ‘will’ the pair of them back to the Monitor World; “I can get you out of here, get us out of here… It was never about winning! Never about beating you…” 

Equally as contrived a solution is Orlando’s suggestion that The Unexpected and Hawkman never needed to destroy Dax Novu with a “kill-shot”, just completely rewrite the villain’s personality in order for him to become a ‘good guy’. This lack-lustre answer is seemingly produced from completely out of the blue, just as Mandrakk appears on the verge of brutalising his opponents into oblivion, and debatably must have struck many of this book’s bibliophiles as a serious anti-climax to such a sense-shattering showdown.

Mercifully, much of this bizarre “Multiverse on life support” storyline, which as an aside bears absolutely no resemblance whatsoever to “DC Comics” marketing synopsis, is dynamically-drawn by Ronan Cliquet and coloured by Jeromy Cox. The creative pair’s work on the aforementioned volcanic-themed scene set on the World Forge looks excellent, and more than makes up for the occasional decline in the Brazilian artist’s (potentially rushed) pencilling later in the book, when perhaps this comic’s end was in finally sight.

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

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

The Unexpected #6 - DC Comics

THE UNEXPECTED No. 6, January 2019

Arguably providing an intriguing insight as to just what fuels Onimar Synn’s demonic body, rather than "DC Comics" publicised “showdown at Castle Frankenstein with the souls of Berlin on the line”, Steve Orlando’s storyline for Issue Six of “The Unexpected” probably pleased the majority of its rapidly diminishing 8,462 strong audience in November 2018. In fact, the opening half of this twenty-page periodical makes for a pretty enthralling experience as Colin Nomi seemingly defies all the odds by allowing himself to be swallowed whole by the ancient Thanagarian devil in order to successfully rescue Firebrand’s soul from an eternity incarcerated inside an Nth Metal prison.

Admittedly, the idea of Neon the Unknown somehow surviving the self-same journey “within the Bones of Onimar Synn” which has cost the lives of so many other entities across the centuries is a little difficult to believe, especially when its soon becomes clear that the realm into which the “infamous Burnside artist” finds himself can only be accessed “through the void in Synn’s hand.” But the sincerity in the blind atheist’s involuntary action to follow Janet Fals straight ‘down the rabbit hole’ provides this comic with a nice, touching moment as to just how important the former paramedic’s friendship has become to the matter manipulator; “Say you’ll fight your way back out with me. I acted on instinct following you…”

Unfortunately however, once Nomi and Firebrand literally tear themselves free from inside Onimar’s horrifically mutilated torso, the same praise can’t debatably be bestowed upon the rest of this book’s plot, with the heroes’ sudden arrival on “the Homeworld of Frankenstein’s teachers” seemingly ending on a ‘to be continued’ cliff-hanger with a little over a third of the publication left to peruse. This splash page shocker depicting “the most important tombstone in the DC Multiverse” is definitely impactive, yet somewhat smacks of this comic’s pacing being badly at odds with its page count, particularly when the self-same scene is oddly recapped just a dozen panels later as if the first illustration was originally intended to end the magazine..?

Disappointingly adding to this book’s aura of inconsistency are Ronan Cliquet’s layouts. Initially doing an excellent job of injecting the sense-shattering shenanigans of Colin’s captivating quest inside Synn’s body with plenty of dynamic drama and tension, the Brazilan artist’s prodigious pencilling takes a noticeable downward decline in quality for a short while after the aforementioned grave marker, almost as if he was suddenly required to add the Bad Samaritan’s resurrection at the last minute as a filler…

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

The Unexpected #5 - DC Comics

THE UNEXPECTED No. 5, December 2018

Packed full of more Nth Metal Isotope related gobbledygook than even this title’s loyal 13,825 readers could perhaps handle, Steve Orlando’s script to Issue Five of “The Unexpected” still probably provided them with an exhilarating insight into the bowels of Castle Frankenstein in the Bavarian Alps. Indeed, despite the twenty page periodical’s plot throwing revelation after revelation at its audience as to the mysterious origin of Onimar Synn’s highly sought after prize, “Mad Science” still proves to be an interesting instalment to the Tor Books Best Comics Award-winner’s lengthy “Call Of The Unknown” storyline.

For starters, the sudden introduction of Hawkman to this comic’s proceedings definitely helps give Colin Nomi someone reasonably rational to talk things over with, at least once Carter Hall has had his double vision of the Dark Multiverse and “Mandrakk on the Night Wind” shocked out of him through Neon the Unknown’s transformation of the winged adventurer’s “white-hot grief” into hope. This duo’s dialogue is admittedly rather wordy and at times, arguably a little incomprehensible, yet it also delivers some tantalising insights into the interior workings of Doctor Victor Frankenstein’s laboratory, as well as an intriguing history between the Birdman and the ancient Thanagarian demon pursuing The Unexpected team.

In addition, Orlando’s inclusion of the former Justice Leaguer permits the infuriatingly dislikeable Firebrand to (once again) brutally batter an obvious ally into the ground with a flurry of punches, and resultantly imbue this book with a rather enjoyable, all-out action sequence. Completely overcome by her Conflict Engine, this exchange of blows certainly should get any bibliophile’s pulse pounding. But it is hard to take Janet Fals seriously when she unconvincingly keeps telling Hall to calm down as she needs his help, whilst simultaneously repeatedly smashing him in the face; “You can either calm down --! Or I can put you down!”

Pencilling plenty of pace into a decidedly discussion-heavy narrative are Ronan Cliquet’s excellent-looking illustrations. The Brazilian artist imbues Castle Frankenstein with plenty of atmosphere with its odd mix of dust, cobwebs and advanced technology, whilst also adding a copious amount of emotional edge to Hawkman’s impassioned speech when he realises that Nomi is wrong and that the Nth Metal Isotope isn’t “from within the Multiverse.”

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

The Unexpected #4 - DC Comics

THE UNEXPECTED No. 4, November 2018

There’s arguably a hint of desperation behind both the promotion and penmanship of Issue Four of “The Unexpected”, considering that “DC Comics” declared Steve Orlando’s narrative for the twenty-page periodical involves “a race to save Gotham City from exposure to the toxic Nth metal” and it crams in no less than three of the Burbank-based publisher’s current ‘bigger named characters’ within its utterly befuddling plot. For whilst “Answers In The Sky” alludes to the Caped Crusader’s metropolis being where the membrane between our reality and the Dark Dimension is at its thinnest, the New Yorker’s treatment hardly depicts Neon the Unknown dashing anywhere in particular so as to save the “fictional American city”, nor is it ever justified why Helena Bertinelli's alter-ego knows so much about "the poisonous Nth metal." 

Indeed, the greatest danger to Batman’s home town would seemingly be the incredibly dislikeable Firebrand and her increasingly grating sense of self-righteousness; “I am [here to fight] whether I want to or not! Don’t you get it? I don’t have the luxury of that choice, because of how you people handle things!” Just how Colin Nomi contrivingly teleported himself and his fiery friend within the proximity of the Huntress is never convincingly explained, yet it soon becomes evident that it’s the very presence of Janet Fals and her disagreeable desire to battle all and sundry which is putting every Gothamite in danger, courtesy of the loose cannon’s “aggression triggering the Nth Metal isotope.”

Such constant rage genuinely becomes tediously overbearing real fast, as the former paramedic launches into Bertinelli and then later the Signal without any rational reason except perhaps to inject a bewildering script with unfounded action sequences. Admittedly, the crossbow-armed Bird of Prey does strike first and Firebrand needs to “start a fight once every twenty four hours” in order to maintain her super-human abilities. But that doesn't explain why no sooner have the pair’s differences concerning Fals bringing “a dirty bomb into a city of millions” been physically resolved than Janet, supposedly sizzled “back to my senses”, then shockingly socks an unarmed Huntress in the mouth simply for voicing her (entirely correct) opinion that the Conflict Engine-driven ‘heroine’ is “out of control.”

To make matters even more unbearable though, once a surprisingly mature and calm Duke Thomas arrives on the scene, Neon’s travelling companion goes into ‘hostile overdrive’, patronising the “kid” one moment as if the always-angry recent addition to the DC Universe is actually the one trained by Batman, and then in the next threatening to beat the costumed crime-fighter to a pulp even when he makes it clear “I’m not here to fight” by helpfully whisking the travellers off underwater to the Bat Cove.

Storytellers: Yvel Guichet, Cary Nord & Scott Hanna, and Steve Orlando

The Unexpected #3 - DC Comics

THE UNEXPECTED No. 3, October 2018

Despite containing an engaging history of Elligh, “the prince of an advanced society of creatures known as Orcks", at the very start of this twenty-page periodical, Steve Orlando’s script for Issue Three of “The Unexpected” must have utterly bewildered its audience in August 2018 with its dialogue-heavy dabblings upon Blackhawk Island and subsequent sojourn to Siberia’s secretive Monster Valley. In fact, June Robbins baffling gobbledygook concerning “a machine whose only function was to signal loved ones when you passed” and brief recollection of the Chronokinetic disaster which “all but wiped the Orcks from time” is so cumbersomely penned that it arguably would have deterred many a perusing bibliophile from traversing deeper into this comic and accompanying Neon the Unknown into the dinosaur-infested “sunken refuge one mile deep where, impossibly, it is still the Cretaceous Period.”

Unhappily however, even Colin Nomi’s adventure in the ‘Land That Time Forgot’ is rather poorly plotted, with the “infamous Burnside artist” being inexplicably ambushed by the formidably powerful Onimar Synn himself. Just how the Thanagarian tyrant happened to locate the defender of the multiverse when the molecular manipulator’s location is supposedly “silent and unknown to even its monstrous guardians” is never explained by the GLAAD Media Award-nominee, and resultantly smacks of little more than a lazy contrivance rather than the cataclysmic confrontation this comic’s dynamic cover illustration would try to suggest.

Of course, no matter how disappointing the New Yorker’s writing may debatably be, it must still have been hard for this book’s followers not to enjoy the sense-shattering surprise of a giant Brontadon momentarily flattening Neon’s startled opponent under the large reptilian beast’s massive girth; “You sicced a dinosaur on him?” Yet even this ‘highlight’, timed to perfection as both the “blind leader” and Firebrand appear to have finally been bested, is soon overshadowed by Orlando’s obsession to over complicate matters by depicting Synn waxing lyrical about “the renovation of your corpse to the Necrophists” and bewildering request for a Necropsy-chariot in order to aid “two for astral sublimation!”

Potentially this book’s biggest strength is therefore in the artwork of Cary Nord, which whilst a little inconsistent in its portrayal of the Challenger, Robbins, undoubtedly captures the pulse-pounding fisticuffs which ensues following the Nth metal-hungry dictator’s revelation to this comic’s leading cast that his bones contain “thousands of fragile souls”. Packed full of the sort of punch one might expect from a publication featuring a character who must “start fights to stay alive” and another who controls “gravity itself”, the Canadian penciler’s panels fortunately bring all the majestic might of such a formidable contest to sense-shattering life.

Storytellers: Cary Nord & Steve Orlando, and Inks: Mark Farmer & Scott Hanna

The Unexpected #2 - DC Comics

THE UNEXPECTED No. 2, September 2018

It’s difficult to believe that any reader was able to comprehensively follow Steve Orlando’s narrative for Issue Two of “The Unexpected” without them first owning either a working knowledge of this twenty-page periodical’s previous installment or a basic grasp of “the events of Dark Nights: Metal”. For whilst “Grenade Tour” undeniably supplies plenty of pulse-pounding panels packed full of urgent tension and only the sort of pace a frantic flight for survival can generate, its far from straightforward script contains little to no exposition as to what is actually happening, nor why the likes of Neon the Unknown and Firebrand are having to flee in the first place.

Admittedly, the Syracuse-born writer’s narrative does contain an early double splash summarisation of Colin Nomi’s origin story, and later it becomes relatively clear that the Bad Samaritan’s mysterious metal, which can apparently “detonate a second time” at any moment, is actually the “heavy isotope of iron” known as Nth metal. But none of this information arguably helps with a plot which sees the blind material manipulator teleport repeatedly from dimension to dimension in order to outrace Lord Onimarr Synn’s ferociously-fanged owl-minions and their female Twi'lek-lookalike “Lady Lamp”; “Manhawks! Hold the fool’s protector --! This shoat cannot keep the Nth metal isotope from me!”

Indeed, if anything this desperate dash from Red Hook, Brooklyn, to Penn City, then Vanity, Ivy Town, National City, Slaughter Swamp, and finally Blackhawk Island only muddles the various plot threads up even more, especially when Janet Fals’ accompanying dialogue concerning “whatever the hell the World Forge is”, is overshadowed by her sorcerous companion’s gobbledygook regarding his “other senses… [being] tuned to more planes of existence than most people’s”, Quench’s metal disrupting “our universe’s fundamental forces”, and another explosion which potentially “could puncture the membrane of reality like a water balloon.”

Happily, this magazine is blessed with some rather dynamically-drawn artwork by Cary Nord, whose storyboarding for Firebrand’s battle with Synn’s General Phade is undoubtedly the highlight of the publication. Clean-lined and well-animated, “the award-winning artist of comic books and graphic novels such as Daredevil, X-Men, and Conan The Barbarian” provides both plenty of gravitas to Nomi’s emotional loss at the death of his friends, Ascendant and the Viking Judge, as well as insurmountable rage in Fals’ furious assaults.

Storytellers: Cary Nord & Steve Orlando, and Inks: Wade von Grawbadger

The Unexpected #1 - DC Comics

THE UNEXPECTED No. 1, August 2018

Printed “in the aftermath of Dark Knights: Metal” and apparently described by Steve Orlando “as Seven Samurai meets The Dark Tower”, this twenty-page “manhunt ranging from Thanagar to the deepest heart of the Dark Multiverse” most assuredly lived up to its title when it first saw print in June 2018, by spectacularly killing off two of the series’ central cast members at the end of the magazine. Indeed, it was probably hard for this periodical’s 28,028 strong audience to recall a more blood-thirsty opening for a brand new book as the “malevolent” Bad Samaritan first dissolves Viking Judge’s left arm, then partially lops off one of Ascendant’s feet, and finally incinerates the super-heroic pair (along with himself) by foolishly attempting to cut Firebrand’s heart out using Turid Goldenaxe’s double-bladed weapon.

Admittedly, such sense-shattering shenanigans do help make the GLAAD Media Award-nominee’s narrative for Issue One of “The Unexpected” an increasingly gripping read, especially when Alden Quench proves himself to be so formidable a villain that he conclusively bests Neon the Unknown, as well as the element-molder's fellow super-powered team-members, one-on-one within the space of a handful of action-packed panels. But even so, the fact that the high-crowned hat wearing “citizen… who has walked between the multiverse raindrops” causes two such viciously savage murders at this comic’s conclusion proves substantially shocking, not least of all to Colin Nomi’s alter-ego, who despite his scarred blindness still realises that his friends are dead due to the fact he can “smell the burning flesh, the hair and hot metal… [but] I can’t hear them breathing… They’re dead… And I’m still here…”

Rather delightfully though, “Call Of The Unknown” doesn’t just simply focus upon this titanic tussle within the corridors and wards of a Veterans Affairs Hospital either, as the New Yorker’s script bravely attempts to start making good on his pre-publication promise to unify “the DCU” by “pulling together a lot of different stories… [and] picking up on the massive architecture of things like Final Crisis.” Such a huge task was never going to be achieved within the space of a single book, no matter how ably pencilled by Ryan Sook and Cary Nord, yet Orlando makes a seemingly suitable start by providing plenty of exposition and focus upon former dead paramedic Janet Fals, and her miraculous resurrection, courtesy of the Conflict Engine, as the fiery fist-fighter Firebrand.

Storytellers: Ryan Sook, Cary Nord & Steve Orlando, and Inks: Mick Gray & Wade von Grawbadger