Osborn #1 – Review

By: Kelly Sue Deconnick (writer), Emma Rios (art), Jose Villarrubia & Matt Wilson (colors), Clayton Cowles (letters) & Alejandro Arbona (editor)

June Covington back-up by: Warren Ellis (writer), Jamie McKelvie (art), Matt Wilson (colors), Cowles (letters) & Arbona (editor)

The Story: What will become of Norman Osborn now that he’s locked up on The Raft?  How about start a secret cabal of followers and get moved to a secret holding facility with some really interesting new villains!

What’s Good: The best thing about this issue are the new nasty-folks that Ms. Deconnick establishes and the promise of what might be a new team of super-villains under Norman Osborn’s guidance.  As we watch the story unfold and Norman Osborn is transferred from The Raft to this secret facility for the seriously demented, does anyone even doubt that he will somehow use his calculating charisma to run the roost with the other prisoners and break out with a ready made team of bad dudes?  That will very, very fun to watch because some of these bad dudes seem interesting, including one who is a member of some nasty reptilian alien race that wants to kill all humans (Cool!).

What is also good is Emma Rios’ art.  What sets artists like her apart is that they’re doing complete pencils and inks.  I really like to see an artist do that instead of relying on the colorist to do all the shading.  There are also a few pages in this issue that just have insane amount so detail.  I think prior to this, Ms. Rios has mostly done outstanding back-up work for Marvel and also filled in here or there when an artist didn’t finish their work in time, but this is (I think) her first featured artist role for Marvel and it looks like she just knocked herself out.  It’s always fun to watch a new(er) artist that is still super-hungry!  Not only is their personal work wonderful to look at, but with newcomers like Ms. Rios around, established artists are going to have to stay on their toes.