When Catwoman robs the Gotham Museum of Art, you call Batman. When Metallo holds the Daily Planet hostage, you call Superman.
When the moon has come to life and threatens to destroy the entire planet, you call Stormwatch.
Except, of course, that you don’t know Stormwatch exists, and they’ll probably have stopped the moon before there’s anything to worry about. Stormwatch is a clandestine organization of superhumans dedicated to protecting the world against alien threats. They’re not superheroes: “They’re amateurs. We’re professionals.”
Stormwatch, the comic book, has been around for years, but this is the group’s first appearance as part of the DC universe. We catch up to the team in the middle of a recruiting mission, trying to track down Apollo, a character whose power rivals Superman’s. Longtime readers of Stormwatch will recall that Apollo has been a member of previous iterations of the team, but because this is the everything-old-is-new-again DC Universe, and because, frankly, there have never been too many longtime readers of Stormwatch, we’re introduced to Apollo again for the very first time, as well as to the other members of the team. Some of those additions are surprising, including Martian Manhunter, a DC mainstay who’d previously been a part of the Justice League.
Those not on the recruiting mission are investigating the moon, which has come to life and threatens to destroy the entire planet. Hopefully, Stormwatch can stop it before there’s anything to worry about.
Paul Cornell has the unenviable task of introducing a dozen or so new characters in the space of 22 pages, and he handles it as well as can be expected, favoring action over exposition, and providing the latter only when it feels organic to the story. Unfortunately, ‘organic’ is not a word I’d use to describe Miguel Sepulveda’s artwork, which seems stiff and unnatural at times. Still, this is fun comics, filled with big ideas in the tradition of Stormwatches past.
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