Xombi Revived

[skjam]

Let's have the cover and four pages from Xombi #1 (May 2011). Xombi, created by Dwayne McDuffie, was one of the second wave of Milestone Comics titles, opening up the line from the fairly traditional superhero stories it had started with. In specific, it was Milestone's equivalent of a Vertigo title, full of weirdness. David Kim, Korean-American scientist, has a hideous lab accident with nanotechnology that turns him immortal and kills his assistant. It also makes him a magnet for all sorts of supernatural and paranormal phenomena. Honestly, a lot of the menaces Xombi dealt with seem to have been gleaned from conversations with Grant Morrison circa Doom Patrol.

With the recent acquisition of Milestone's characters by DC, this is the concept that managed to get an ongoing first.








Bad/weird things are happening. But these are just symptoms of the coming problem.



Julian Parker is a low-level secular mage, kind of cynical--sort of like a slightly less obnoxious John Constantine. But he's stuck in Brazil and the problem is in Dakota, so he has to call our main character.



Julian explains that the prison in question is under the auspices of the Catholic church, and he doesn't entirely trust that organization to be upfront about any problems that might arise. Which is not to say that their individual members aren't good people.



For example. They're joined by Sister Beatrice, Nun the Less (she shrinks) and Father Maxwell (powers not in evidence.) But they're just a little too late, and that's when the action begins....



Your thoughts and comments?

Comments

[keeva]

DC didn't acquire Milestone's characters; they're still owned by Milestone. I'm not sure who controls them now with Dwayne's passing (god that's still fucking hard for me to type), but it's not DC Comics. They just have the right to use/publish them and theoretically that right could be revoked.

[skjam]

This is correct.

[benicio127]

This is a Really Good book. I was actually going to do a post about it, too. And I actually hadn't really been a fan of Frazier Irving's art up to now. But I think it suits this book really well.

[korvarthefox.livejournal.com]

Xombi was definitely my favourite Milestone comic back in the day - great to see it up and running again. Not entirely sure about this art, but hopefully the comic will get time to develop...

[greenmask]

I've been wanting to get on this book since the solicits.. I still wanniiit.

Quite the apparent make-up job on Nun of the Above.

[icon_uk]

I should try and dig out a few Xombi issues from the original run, the level of creative insanity really WAS at Grant morrison Doom Patrol level and was awesome.

[octavius-rodens.livejournal.com]

I still have scans from when I posted them on the old scans daily. I think I only got up to issue 3, maybe 4, but if you want them I can save you the trouble of scanning them in.

[icon_uk]

A kind offer, thank you, but in this case I think I'd rather have a go myself and pull out the bits that have resonance for me, which might be different from your ones.

[ian_karkull]

Oh, please do. The book looks great so far and I've never seen the original.

[blackruzsa]

This seems so interesting. Dang.

[octavius-rodens.livejournal.com]

They're really going to need to release the old Milestone comics for new readers. Partly because it's a great series and partly because the series is really fricking weird and the readers need to be brought up to speed. I think there are a couple of dangling plotlines from the previous series as well.

But... Yay! More Xombi!

[skjam]

Most of it still seems to be "in continuity" based on references in this issue. Probably everything that doesn't require the story to be in the Nineties.

[thanekos]

I'm still amused David qualified for a GL ring in Mcduffie's "Anansi makes alternate realities happen" JLA bit.

He's certainly not especially unqualified, but man.. a lot of people must've bowed out before in that story.

[auggie18]

Hmm. This looks really cool. I'd like to find the original run.

[baihu]

I thought this was Xombie Reanimated for a sec: http://www.xombified.com/

It was an online animation called Xombie by James Farr that started in 2003, and has a comic book series called Xombie Reanimated and Xombie Dead on Arrival. Supposedly also going to be a movie by Dreamworks but that announcement was done in 2009.

Just curious which came first? The fact both names of the comic book series are basically identical, they couldn't license Xombie because Xombie is already under James Farr?

[philippos42]

Xombi was first. And the two have nothing to do with each other.

[philippos42]

"With the recent acquisition of Milestone's characters by DC, this is the concept that managed to get an ongoing first."

Which supports my suspicion that DC's creatives are a bit more into horror & weirdness than into proper superheroes.

[arilou_skiff]

The puns. THEY BURNNNN!!!!!

[octavius-rodens.livejournal.com]

Aren't they great? Nun of the Above is not only a horrible pun but an awesome name. Nun the Less is a little less impressive, however.

[ian_karkull]

I was quite partial to the "Nun of your business".

[ian_karkull]

So, I finally got around to reading this and it. is. awesome! I've been really intruiged by the book solely from reading up on Milestone on the Internet, but never managed to get my hands on any back issues.
It's even better than I'd expected it to be. This sort of bizarre creativity and all out weirdness is right up my alley and Irving's moody artwork sells it perfectly. I'm really curious to see where it goes, but for now, it's definitely going on my pull list.

Also, I'm totally stealing the "Evil Papier-Mache Head Cult" for my next Mage: The Awakening campaign. Because that is how I roll.