Plot: Someone is sending Sam Burke home-made snuff movies...
Whatever the rights and wrongs of the changing creative team, now the hyperbole is over and we can see what Todd has made of his baby, Sam and Twitch - and it's a pretty good job too.
Forget what you know about Todd from writing Spider-Man and Spawn, this is whole different kettle of fish, and one that deserves your time. Words of one syllable or less - There. Are. No. Splash. Pages (okay, so two syllables, so sue me). Who the heck would've expected that?
And here's another bombshell - There. Is. No. Simple. Trite. Dialogue. The less charitable of us would suggest that maybe Mr McFarlane didn't have as great a hand in this as credited, but we have Beau Smith's assurance that Todd is at the helm, and yes, I can safely say that he has grown as a writer.
I wouldn't say he matches his artistic skills with his writing, not just yet - of course, this comment could be construed as a double-edged sword: if you hate his art, then saying his writing isn't as good will mean to you that it sucks! Far from it, what I mean to say is let's take Todd as an example of dynamic, action-packed and adrenalin-fuelled artistic talent - the writing here, whilst good, doesn't quite get the pulses pounding, it's not sense-shattering...oh dear, slipping back into 1990s Marvel-speak.
The story then. Twitch is still coming to terms with the death of his lover, K.C. Sam is the voice of reason, trying to buck him up, but reason can't fight against emotion so it'll be a long, uphill battle before Twitch is back to "normal". In the meantime there's a case on Sam's desk, and it's a nasty one - a videotape turns up, featuring a husband and wife being raped and killed by a terrorist type (you know the sort, black clothes, black balaclava).
A night out at a bar later (potential love interest alert!), Sam returns home and finds...another tape, this time in his fridge. Marked "2" we'll find out what is on it next issue (presumably the girl kidnapped halfway through this issue)...and if the guy feels the need to number the tapes, there could be a whole lot more before this is sorted.
I think the future of the book hangs very much on this storyline - if it's resolved via a nice piece of detective work, through the clues scattered in this and the next issue, with it all pieced together logically by the end, then we're in safe hands. If, however, we end up with Sam and Twitch stumbling across the baddie through no real effort on their part, then it'll just be another comic.
