Mike E. Mancini's Reviews > Cosmic Odyssey

At glance, this story, features many big-name superheroes in the DC universe, as well as two all-star creators Jim Starlin and Mike Mignola; and—AND—Jack Kirby’s creations The New Gods, and THE quintessential villain Darkseid, it has everything you need to tell a story of proper Cosmic proportions. Starlin sticks to the fundamentals, nothing too fancy: an immeasurable seemingly unstoppable power threatens universes (!) Uber Villain Darkseid must turn to his lifelong enemies for help (!) Super star heroes Batman, Superman, Green Lantern and others of lesser renown; they must break up into teams of two--so desperate is the hour of discontent and of so little time left for heroics--so these titans can cover more Cosmic ground, as it were—the only way they can save absolutely all of everything.

I would totally be into this.

I have a great amount of affection for The New Gods; I truly appreciate and fearfully respect the evil machinations of Darkseid. He (he?) who once had his prey tied up seconds from decapitation if, and only if, one of their fellow team members (also fully restrained) too exhausted to press a single button every minute of the day in order to save them; the horror visible on a TV screen, trap resets every minute ad infinitum. Pretty mean.

I enjoy a solid Batman story; I can appreciate the necessity of Superman when there are entire solar systems in jeopardy of being destroyed. I’m willing to get to know other characters which I’m less familiar with like John Stewart of the Green Lantern Corps, who apparently was born in Detroit, Michigan. Martian Manhunter is there, so is Starfire and a guy called Bug a.k.a Forager. I don’t know almost anything about those last four. However, if the story is of a high quality escapism then we will get to know them in some capacity--that’s part of the fun. Learn about their power, their weakness and perhaps be party to an event that results in a long term metamorphosis. Yes, year long reverberations echoing throughout other comics in the DC universe. The bread and butter of infinitely serialized stories.

JIm Starlin, best known to fans for his work on Captain Marvel and Adam Warlock, misfires with his characterizations of Batman, The New Gods, and Darksied. He may have flopped on some of the other characters, but I’d never know due to my passive knowledge. Either way, none of the others were compelling in any way at all.

The most egregious error was his misunderstanding of Jack Kirby’s “Anti-life equation”. It can be many things: a theme park that traps humanity infinitely, TV broadcasts that bring viewers under complete control, or a mathematical equation that induces those who recognize it to the futility of life, enslaving them ultimately.
In Cosmic Odyssey, Starlin equates anti-life as a liquid-like alien being/substance that detonates bombs that destroy entire solar systems. It’s as uninteresting as it sounds

A minor player sacrifices his life to save the day. A last minute surprise shows up, also to save the day. Darkseid was using everyone all along for nefarious ends (!). The last chapter is a cliche riddled disaster.

The art is pretty awesome. Mike Mignola does great work, but he cannot bail this story out. No one can.