The unlikely crime-fighting duo returns!
Creative Staff:
Story: Christopher Priest
Art: MD Bright
What They Say:
Whatever happened to the world’s worst superhero team? Twenty years past their prime, the unlikely crime-fighting duo known as Quantum and Woody (not a couple) have long since parted ways…until a middle-aged Quantum suddenly reappears with a brand-new teenage partner. Now Woody is out to break up the all-new, all-different Quantum and Woody and put an end to Quantum’s recklessness…just as Quantum takes on a life-or-death personal mission for national security. Can these former friends set aside their differences…and their age…and their numerous health difficulties…to join forces one last time without driving each other crazy?
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
The issue opens with a flash of Woody and Eric as teens with some girls heading towards a lake, and there’s a brief discussion on the theme of Steinback’s Of Mice and Men, which concludes with Eric suggesting it’s about how far one will go to protect their best friend, then dismissing his answer flippantly because all the Steinback talk is boring, guys, and not enough wet t-shirts! They find a body, a gun, and a suspicious man who stops to the side of the road by the body, who wants Eric and Woody to go with him, but Woody ends up shooting him, as it seems.
Jumping forward, a man stands before a painting he intended to steal and has a mental conversation (one-sided) about how he knows it’s a trap, but the police sent to get him are just a sword. As Quantum appears, his uniform’s refractive properties are disabled by the man, who reveals himself to be a Koro soldier, and things are looking dicey for Quantum without the ability to be bullet-proof. When Woody appears in an alley as Quantum stumbles out and falls unconscious, and a tank appears. After a bit of cursing back and forth, the person in the tank claims Woody can’t be Woody, because the person in tank pops up to reveal that HE IS WOODY! /dramatic chord
Actually, it seems like Woody is possibly also a title, so there’s “old” Woody of Woody and the Wood Tones band fame, and a younger Woody, and someone named Jonathan was posing as Quantum, and it was not Eric, but Eric does show up at the end of the issue and….To Be Continued!
In Summary:
This is my first time diving into the Quantum and Woody world, so I feel like I’ve waded into uncharted territory. There’s mention they were ionized/iso’d, and that they have to click some strange bands on their wrists every twenty-four hours or they’ll turn to atoms. It seems like the original Woody and Quantum are getting caught up in a new threat, or at least the end of the issue suggests that. Because of my unfamiliarity of this comic world, I feel a little lost about what’s going on, so this may not necessarily be an easy story to jump into if one hasn’t ever read about this unlikely crime-fighting duo.
That all being said, the art is good and consistent, and I do actually want to know more about this story, if anything to figure out who is who and what the deal is. I feel like the Steinback conversation at the start will have some meaning on this series, and how far one will go for their best friend, because its placement in this issue seemed almost obvious in terms of allegory.
Grade: B-
Age Rating: T+
Released By: Valiant Entertainment
Release Date: October 15, 2014