Vibe #1 review

DC's ad campaign for this book has baffled me. 'The unlikeliest hero' proclaims the cover. 'The League's most unlikely member ...' yells the house ad. Yes, the original Vibe wasn't a popular character when created for a 1980s JLA revamp - blame breakdancing and dodgy street slang. But that was the 1980s, and the character was killed off well before the end of the decade. Several generations of comic readers have come and gone since then. I know he's appeared in DC's TV cartoons, but I believe the animated Vibe went down rather well.

This isn't the same Vibe. The Paco nickname has been sidelined in favour of Cisco (as in Francisco). And as well as creating shockwaves, he has a range of vibratory powers due to a run-in with a Boom Tube during the Apokolips attack on Detroit detailed in the recent Justice League relaunch.

Cisco himself doesn't know the extent of his abilities in this debut issue, which begins on the day he gained his powers - and lost a brother. Elder sibling Armando was killed by a Parademon, other big brother Dante blames himself for being too scared to help (as if he could have done anything but get himself killed). Five years on, Cisco is working in an electronics shop and saving for college. Dante is a bit of a no-hoper, always cadging cash and dreaming of being a big-time gambler.

Then Cisco is picked up off the street by Dale Gunn, agent of ARGUS, the US government's superhuman oversight organisation. By introducing Vibe to a Parademon that's been preying on the neighbourhood homeless he gives Cisco a shot at gaining justice for Armando - in truth, it's more straight-up revenge. But it gives Cisco a taste of just how powerful he is, after he's previously operated as a small-time hero. Gunn invites him onto the new Justice League of America, with the enticement of training to reach his full potential. And behind the scenes, Gunn's boss, Amanda Waller, is hiding some dirty little secrets.

As first issues go, this is a winner. Co-writers Geoff Johns and Andrew Kreisberg make Paco likeable without being drippy, giving him dreams, a love of family and a natural inkling towards heroism. By the end of the issue Vibe has a role unique among DC's heroic community - he's the interdimensional 'border cop', Darkseid's incursion having left Detroit something of a crossroads between worlds. If any uglies come through, Vibe will stop them - and if the problem is too big for him alone, he can call on his JLA colleagues. That's quite the gig. The expanded power set means Vibe can not only stand alongside DC's most powerful heroes (the first Vibe's earthquake abilities were pretty formidable), he can fight for good on a cosmic scale.

Someone Johns and Kreisberg don't make likeable is Waller - the original, pre-New 52 version, was a hard-ass fixer who could be ruthless when she had to be; the new iteration seems to have 'ruthless' as her default, forever expecting the worst in people and ready to put them down for it. And she has zero sense of irony.

Incidentally, we're told that because he's now naturally out of kilter with Earth's vibrational frequence, Cisco can't be photographed. So I guess that's an artist's impression on Waller's wall over in Justice League #1.

I'm glad to see the close of this issue picking up on a dangling plot thread from the Justice League's run-in with Darkseid, though if you weren't reading those issues - and if so, I envy you - you can easily jump on board here.

Artist Pete Woods engages from the first page, with his endearing portrait of the Ramon brothers in downtrodden Detroit. There's a lovely humanity to the work, which makes the following spread all the more effective in its bizarre imagery. And the great pages just keep on coming. The organic breakdowns, skilfully finished by Sean Parsons, are especially effective in the seqiuence of Cisco really cutting loose, and I love their leering Parademons.

One thing that isn't so great, visually, is Vibe's costume. I actually prefer the corny yet characterful pre-Crisis look to the new outfit, which looks like one of Hank Pym's more utilitarian cast-offs.

On balance, though, this is a terrific first issue. It introduces us to a new superhero who radiates old-fashioned sweetness and places him firmly at the centre of the DC Universe and some intriguing mysteries. Johns and Woods are known for sticking around on books so I'm optimistic we'll get a nice long run of entertaining yarns developing Cisco and his world. Anything else really would be unlikely.