Team Seven #4 – Review

By: Justin Jordan (story), Jesús Merino (art), Nathan Eyring (colors)

The Story: The difference between Slade and Eclipso is like night and later that night.

The Review: For any of you interested in the reviewing experience, let me just say the obvious that you never want to be in the awkward position of recognizing a writer’s talents, but concluding that his story is kind of lame anyway.  While you can definitely appreciate the rhythm and flow of Jordan’s writing, the plot itself has been less than inspired, with definite shades of editorial mandate.

It’s very, very hard for me to believe, given the mission statement and tone Jordan set up for this series at the start, that he ever intended to feature the Black Diamond and Eclipso as the primary plot device and antagonist for his first arc.  After all, Team Seven is a gang of highly skilled fighters and shooters; what do they really know about fighting demonic possession or demons themselves?  How can they use their mercenary know-how to defeat things that bullets can’t touch or simply bounce off of?

Team Seven #3 – Review

By: Justin Jordan (story), Julius Gopez & Jimbo Salgado (art), Nathan Eyring (colors)

The Story: This isn’t Zelda, Slade; big shiny gems aren’t always a good thing.

The Review: Sometimes, I just don’t get how the Big Two make their publishing and editing decisions.  Granted, I’m no businessman, nor do I know the ins and outs of the comic book biz, and obviously there are a lot of politics that I have no awareness of, but the goal shouldn’t be that hard to grasp: produce the best story premises with the most suitable and talented creative teams possible.  Settling for less only creates more problems in the long term.

Case in point: I would like to know who gave the green light for Team Seven to go to market when it is so clearly not ready for mass consumption.  The book clearly has a good pitch—put a number of DC’s toughest non-powered heroes on one team and unleash them on some crazy missions—but from what I’ve read, it seems clear the series could have used a lot more time in the development tank before it could truly stand on its own.

Team Seven #2 – Review

By: Justin Jordan (story), Ron Frenz (breakdowns), Julius Gopez (pencils), Scott Hanna (inks), Nathan Eyring (colors)

The Story: It’s hard to tell if everyone’s gone crazy because of a Jekyll serum or severe jet lag.

The Review: Even though Jordan gets to work with some pretty recognizable characters, it’s apparent that some intensive work needs to be done to make them stand out in people’s minds. Team Seven ostensibly works within a much more realistic framework of conflicts than, say, the Justice League, and so they tend to come across a little more realistically than their superheroic peers.  However, the closer characters get to reality, the harder it is to make them memorable.

After all, you’re dealing with a whole group of people who are pretty darn smart, intellectually, street, or otherwise.  Not only that, but they are all of them professionals in their field.  Smart, professional people tend to react reasonably in crisis situations, and so has Team Seven.  In such circumstances, there’s no meaningful opportunity to show off your colorful personality.  So even though there are obvious differences between Amanda Waller and Cole Cash, you don’t read this issue and instantly recognize a totally Waller or Cash “moment.”

Team Seven #1 – Review

By: Justin Jordan (story), Ron Frenz (breakdowns), Jesús Merino (pencils), Marlo Alquiza, Drew Geraci, José Marzan Jr. (inks), Nathan Eyring (colors)

The Story: Everyone takes a fall sometimes, but only a few do it from five miles up.

The Review: Ever since T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents and Blackhawks got canned, I haven’t felt a DC title that projected the same kind of panache Nick Spencer and Mike Costa brought to their respective series, a quality you might describe as “smart.”  Unlike Scott Snyder’s literary intelligence and Grant Morrison’s conceptual genius, Spencer and Costa had a knack for plots and characters that can confront the mechanics of the real world and deal with them practically.

Jordan has a similar talent, and Team Seven certainly feels like the spiritual successor to both those titles.  Set in a world with a nascent superhuman population, the story plays into every conspiracy theory you’ve ever had about big government.  Lynch lays out the team’s mission with a motivation so nationalistic and ruthless that it can only be credible:

Team Seven #0 – Review

By: Justin Jordan (story), Jesus Merino, Norm Rapmund, Rob Hunter (art) Nathan Eyring (colors)

The Story: Seven extraordinary individuals gathered to save the world from itself—maybe.

The Review: In a lot of ways, comics are a lot like television; you’re always looking for the newest addiction, whether it be a critical darling (Arrested Development), a pop hit (Friends), or a project that works as both (Seinfield).  I don’t pick up every new title I see, but I like looking in each one that comes out, hoping to find the next big thing.  On that level, I really appreciate DC’s “waves” of new titles.  There’s always a chance a great series is around the corner.

The first thing I usually look at in a new title is the rhythm and style of the writing, well before I consider the story’s actual merits.  Blame it on my English major or some quirk in my personality, but I can’t stand artificial, hacky dialogue or narration.  It just reeks of a writer who’s trying too hard or a little too obsessed with his idea of how his story should sound.  Jordan makes good on his DC debut thanks to some carefully constructed, if not exactly inspired, writing.  Given the genre he’s dealing with, he could easily have gone overboard in trying to make the script “edgy,” but he keeps the tone centered, which wears well on the characters.