The Ray #1 – Review

By: Jimmy Palmiotti & Justin Gray (writers), Jamal Igle (penciller), Rich Perrotta (inker), Guy Major (colorist)

The Story: Prepare to be blinded by the Ray—in more ways than one.

The Review: Here’s another beauty about the new 52: the opportunity to launch new characters or to revive old ones for a new generation.  So of all the myriad heroes of the DC canon to return to the forefront, why the Ray?  Nowhere in his history, from his origins in Quality Comics’ Uncle Sam and the Freedom Fighters to his brief stint as a member of Young Justice, did he ever have what you might call popular appeal.

And I’m not sure if this new version of the Ray will turn that trend around.  Truthfully, I’m not a fan of publishers artificially promoting diversity by having minority characters take up legacy brands, like Jackson Hyde and Aqualad, Jaime Reyes and Blue Beetle, Ryan Choi and the Atom, and now Lucien Gates, a Korean-American and newest incarnation of the radiant hero.

It’s also not great that Palmiotti-Gray have chosen a new person for the mantle when Ray Terrill, the previous Ray, hasn’t officially been wiped from active status, which the writers should know since they wrote his last appearance in last year’s short-lived Freedom Fighters ongoing.  As the only version of the hero who came closest to having a following (even getting a solo series back in the mid-nineties), you’d think it’d be smarter to use what was working rather than start anew.

But let’s set all that aside and take Lucien on his own merits, shall we?  As far as secret origins go, his come in one of the more traditional ways: a freak accident, in the truest sense of the word.  Sure, it doesn’t make sense how a misfired beam from the U.S. military’s experimental “sun gun” would randomly bestow powers on any organic thing it strikes.  Then again, if you can accept that a lightning bolt and a chemical cocktail can make a man super-fast, maybe you should just this “sun gun” thing go.