Glory #23

Written by Joe Keatinge
Art by Ross Campbell

Rob Liefeld's relaunch of Extreme Comics, his line of derivative excessive 90s characters, is now 2 for 2 with the return of Glory.  I have no idea who Glory used to be, but now she is an other-dimensional warrior woman, whose birth brought peace to two warring peoples, ending millennia of hostility.

During the Second World War, Glory came to Earth to experience a more normal life, and to participate in the conflict.  After the war, she stared down Supreme, and continued to chart her own path.

This issue is split between the flashbacks that show Glory's glory days, and suggest that this book may not be the complete redesign that Brandon Graham and Simon Roy's Prophet series is, as this book references other Liefeld 'creations' (to the extent that someone could create a character like Supreme, who is basically Superman, with a few letters adjusted), and contemporary scenes that introduce the character of Riley Barnes.

Riley is a young reporter (or, would like to be) who has spent her life dreaming of Glory.  Now, she's decided to track her down as part of her master's thesis, and her research takes her to an underpopulated island in France.  I don't want to spoil anything, except to say that this book takes a Rick Jones/Captain Marvel thing, and uses it in an interesting way.

This issue didn't blow me away the way the first issue of the relaunched Prophet did, but it is a solid examination of a Wonder Woman like character.  Joe Keatinge is new to comics writing, but shows some solid promise.  The surprise for me is Ross Campbell.  His art here is very nice, but doesn't have the same thickness (of line and character) that I got used to seeing in his highly addictive emo youth love series Wet Moon.  Campbell is one of the best artists around for drawing women that look like real women, and so his Glory does not have the tiny waist and large bosom that we think of when we think of 90s superheroines; instead, she looks like a woman who is incredibly strong would look.  Riley is equally plausible, visually.

This series has a lot of potential, and I look forward to seeing where Keatinge is going to take it, even if it is more conventional than I would have expected.