The Twelve #8 (of 12)

It's always amazing to watch a creative team take a time-worn idea and make it work. That's exactly what writer J. Michael Straczynski and artist Chris Weston have managed to do with The Twelve.

The story focuses on 11 heroes who were placed in suspended animation when they were captured by the Nazis during World War II. The 12th member of the team is the robot Electro - it was essentially turned off and left with the others.

Is there a World War II hero other than Namor who wasn't put in suspended animation and revived in "modern" times? Yes, I'm exaggerating - but you have to admit it's a long list. Heck, even the Red Skull used that excuse!

Anyway, the 12 heroes are revived when their tomb is uncovered in 2008 - and now they try to adjust to a world that is very different from the one they knew.

The team is made up of B-list characters who were featured in Timely Comics (today the company is known as Marvel Comics, natch), so you have an interesting mix of masked vigilantes with no powers and a few incredibly powerful figures.

Straczynski has done a masterful job of bringing us up to speed on the lives of these characters, and the terrible ramifications of losing 60 years of your life. Despite the large cast, he's maintained a good balance between super-heroics and the human story of these people.

Weston is a vastly underrated talent, and he's doing incredible work here, and putting a stunning amount of realistic detail into his work. The book is worth buying just for the art!

Having said all that, I have to admit that this issue is one of the weakest in the run, although it's still superior to most comics on the stands - it just suffers by comparison to the other issues in the run. This issue focuses on the one female in the group - The Black Widow (no relation to the modern-day Marvel super-spy).

As past issues have shown, she hunts down evildoers at the behest of some kind of demonic power - but her origin ends up being just the standard deal with a devil - I was hoping for more.

Still, this has been an excellent series and seems to be building up to a big finish. The real shame is that we only have four more issues to enjoy - it'll be over far too soon.

Grade: A-