Hi, my name is Swifty and I'm a Warren Ellis whore. I'll read and (usually) enjoy anything Ellis does for any publisher. I get the Bad Signal e-mails and buy any trade with his name attached. All that said, even I was suspect of newuniversal, the reboot of Marvel's attempt to launch a new universe on the 20th anniversary of the Marvel U. The various series quickly folded and every issue is available in your local retailer's quarter bin. Marvel put Salvador Larroca on art, providing every possible hurdle to get over to read a book by my favorite writer.
The story starts out very Ellis-like with an introduction to various loser main characters and other lowlifes. The 'White Event,' which creates our new heroes, is interesting in and of itself, but Ellis gets a bit self indulgent with insanely boring pages about a archaeological dig and an incomprehensible explanation of the newuniersal thingamabobber.
Actually, the next five issues repeat the themes of the first and we never get more than some very generic character set-up and world building. And to be completely honest, it's not a very interesting world. That's right, I'm calling an Ellis book boring. Very boring in fact. Maybe a stronger, more interesting artist could have brought some of the big moments to life, but mostly the book fails because the writing just isn't engaging. One-hundred and fifty-two pages of minimal set-up is not, in this reviewers opinion, a good way to relaunch a universe.
C-