Sometimes you know you just belong elsewhere.
Creative Staff:
Storytellers: Jim Lee, Ryan Benjamin, James Tynion IV
Inkers: Scott Williams, Richard Friend
Colors: Jeremiah Skipper, Alex Sinclair
Letterer: Carlos M. Mangual
What They Say:
“THE END OF FOREVER” part one! There is a secret history to the DC Universe of heroes who have protected humanity from the shadows since the dawn of time…and who can live forever. Enter the Immortal Men! The team, headed by the Immortal Man, has waged a secret war against the House of Conquest for countless years—but Conquest has dealt a devastating blow. When their base of operations, known as the Campus, is savagely attacked, the Immortal Men must seek out their last hope—an emerging metahuman known as Caden Park! Caden’s emerging powers may be able to ensure the Immortal Men’s survival—but will Conquest get to him first?
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
With several series spinning out of the Dark Knights: Metal event that have come out so far, The Immortal Men probably had most of the attention because of the people involved – and the delays from when it was first said to be coming out. I’ve been interested in most of the projects for the first issue and there are a couple that I’ve slotted to trade and one that’s set for an ongoing interest. The Immortal Men got my attention from the concept and the creative, particularly since I haven’t read a Jim Lee book in what feels like forever, but the opening issue unfortunately pushed me to the trade side. There’s a whole lot going on here and it suffers from that sense that I should know a lot more of the foundations from the Metal event that I did not read. Once you isolate that aspect we basically have a very familiar story.
That story focuses on Caden Park, a young man that is dealing with dreams that he’s had for several years since first encountering Superman on a bus while visiting the big city. That has him seeing a therapist over this otherworldly stuff he sees about a place called the Campus where there are people that fight the good fight in protecting the world. Naturally, it’s real and he’s connected to it but it’s an unknown element at this point. For Caden, he’s feeling like he’s bound for something bigger and is but it’s just out of reach and he doesn’t know how to get there. That has him pinning his hopes on this strange bearded man that he sees often, almost just out of view, that he’s seen in this dream of the Campus and its environment. That gives him the greater feeling that it is all real and oh so close.
We do get something when it comes to the actual immortal side of the series as we learn of two factions that are fighting with one that views itself as protectors of humanity and the other believing that they should rule it at this point. There’s what feels like a war of attrition going on but we’re only barely superficially introduced to the players as this essentially villainous side is show building up its key players and investigating some ruins. There’s a touching point on some aspects of the past, just by a few hundred years though, and the cast of characters is intriguing just from the visual design alone which certainly helps to carry it forward. But it’s paper thin, again perhaps owing to not reading Metal, and that ends up making the bulk of this book little more than a prelude of a teaser to what’s to come.
In Summary:
The things that will make this work as a series is that it has a strong creative foundation and clearly a view of what they want to do. I’m not a fan of starting in the middle of a story and this doesn’t really do that as we’re clearly at the start of Caden’s adventure. At the same time I don’t feel like it was a strong or clean/clear enough introduction with what’s going on to make me feel like I must come back right away. Some of it is that it just feels very decompressed even as packed as it is because it doesn’t advance much of anything, it doesn’t sweep me along into the story. That has me more interested in waiting on compilations for it to check out as I suspect that a six-issue trade will read far stronger and more engaging to me than a frustrating monthly experience.
Grade: B
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: DC Comics via ComiXology
Release Date: April 11th, 2018
MSRP: $2.99
