Greek Street #1

Written by Peter Milligan
Art by Davide Gianfelice

One thing you've never been able to fault Peter Milligan on is ambition. He's a highly inconsistent writer, who has authored some truly amazing comics (Shade the Changing Man, X-Force/X-Statix), and some rather dreadful ones (his X-Men one being most memorable there). It's true that he usually does his best work when given little editorial interference, and usually with Vertigo.

This series is definitely ambitious in its scope and execution. Milligan is re-writing the Greek myths, set in modern day London. In this issue, he introduces a ton of characters, and tries to set a number of different, yet interconnected, stories into play. He leaves it to the readers to make the connections to the myths of old (although lets face it, naming a bunch of guys 'The Fureys' isn't the most subtle thing in the world).

A lot happens in this first issue - it's a good thing he has the extra length to work with, and it's not always clear what is going on, or who the characters are. This doesn't really matter though, if you look at this as a sampler of what the series is going to be like, when it slows down a little. I feel like I need to read this issue again, but I also know that I'm interested in the next issue, which I guess makes this $1 opener a success.

Gianfelice's art is nice in this book. It has a classical Vertigo look to it, and it's a capable follow-up to his Northlanders arc. This title seems to be following the type of formula that does well at Vertigo - it's definitely on familiar ground, which hopefully means it will last more than two years, unlike many recent Vertigo debuts.