When I first read about Aftermath in Previews, it raised my eyebrows. Devil’s Due – perhaps in an attempt to reinvent themselves, or in an effort to expand their readership, launched this new line of superhero comics. The premise was pretty simple, if not a little unoriginal – a brand new group of “hero” books for a brand new generation, without all of the continuity baggage that comes along with the more venerated comic universes.

Of course I was skeptical – who wouldn’t be? This sort of thing has been tried before, and usually after an initial good start, most of these titles tend to slowly fade away.

But hey – it is Devil’s Due, and even though I am luke-warm on the 80’s revival books like G.I. Joe and Voltron, I have been enjoying the heck out of their other stuff, from Misplaced to Cosmic Guard and Hack/Slash. So I decided that I would give one of the Aftermath titles, Defex, a shot.

Defex, the story of a super powered group of college students, is being written by Marv Wolfman of the New Teen Titans fame, with art by Stefano Caselli and Sunder Raj, who have done some recent work on the G.I. Joe Master and Apprentice series.

The story starts simple enough – five students from the University of California at Freemont Springs are put together in a lab group for their class. Their assignment – to research the biological applications of “nanotubes” technology. For this task, they are given their own lab (which is disguised as a water tower, for reasons they can’t understand), with all of the materials needed to accomplish their task.

During their research, they come across some information about latent abilities in the DNA of all humans. They decide that it might be possible to adapt the nanotubes to unlock these abilities, and get to the point where they need to ask the university for permission to test their ideas. Unfortunately, they are denied. After a night of drinking, the quintet awoke to find that they had tested the nanotubes on themselves. Of course, would this be a “hero” book if they didn’t develop super powers as a result?

Unbeknownst to them, the five were actually brought them together for a specific purpose by a group known as The Black Ring. Mr. Michaels, the group’s professor, deliberately hand-picked the team, and set them in a certain direction in their research. One of the five students is actually a “mole,” someone placed there by Michaels and the Black Ring to help guide the group to accomplish what they ultimately did – find a way to use nanotubes to alter the DNA of a human and unlock latent abilities..

The Black Ring, shortly after their transformation, sent a group of soldiers after the students, to bring them under closer control.

Cast of Characters

Ariel Davis first described her power as a smell, though it could be more of a “sixth sense” in nature. She can sense those around her within a certain radius, and can even use her powers to specifically pinpoint someone’s location if properly motivated.

When Mia Sanchez’s powers first manifested, felt an overwhelming urge to run. She did so – right through the steel side of the water tower, through the woods, and right off a cliff into the ocean. She seemed to gain enhanced strength and durability from the experiment, however, she is still uncertain how to activate these abilities on demand. Mia, prior to the experiment, was diagnosed with cancer. It is uncertain whether or not the tumor will be healed by whatever changes occurred in her body, though there was evidence that her immune system and blood chemistry were radically altered by the nanotubes.

Jack Morgan, the group’s “bad boy,” is often seen smoking a cigarette (GASP!), and seems to have a definite attraction for Mia. Jack has demonstrated an ability to affect the emotions of those around him. He can also affect more powerful emotional changes directly, but to do that, he has to establish a very intimate link with that person’s mind, exposing all of their thoughts to him.

Shortly after Haley Rin woke up, strange quills began to grow all over his body, and shoot out, just like a porcupine. As he eventually gained some control over his ability (with the help of Jack’s powers), he found that he could transform his body to mimic the abilities of countless animals. His powers are not actual shape shifting (like Beast Boy, who becomes the size of the animal he is mimicking), when he turns into a porcupine, he is still the same size and basic shape of a human, with some added animal enhancements.

Tristan Warfield’s powers manifested in an extremely unusual manner. When the group awoke after their night of drinking, they found Tristan was stuck to the ceiling in some sort of cocoon. After the team fled the water tower, Tristan emerged from his cocoon a very different creature – mindless and feral. He was eventually captured by the Black Ring, who conducted further experiments on him, and successfully removed the blockage from his brain that prevented him from accessing his human personality. He is eventually “freed” by his friends, and though he can think rationally again, his body is still the only one of the five that is actually disfigured.

Thoughts

Despite my initial skepticism about the whole Aftermath line, I found that I really enjoyed Defex a great deal. Overall, the story is off to a pretty solid start, and from the looks of future solicitations, it looks as if the groundwork for some decent longevity is being laid.

When reading the first three issues, the one thing that I tried to keep in mind was the concept behind the title, and the Aftermath line as a whole. As I understood it, the goal was to create a group of titles that were similar in style and genre to all of the superhero books we grew up loving, but without the decades of continuity baggage, and with a more modern evolution of characters and setting. (Boy, that was a mouthful, wasn’t it?) The thing is, that goal isn’t all that unique. Almost every publisher that puts out a new superhero book starts out with a similar goal. But rarely is it ever so defined in advance in this way, and I think that is one thing that Aftermath has going for it. It isn’t just trying to create a series of superhero books, it is deliberately trying to capture the feel of the more venerable superhero titles, while at the same time making them contemporary enough to appeal to a modern reader. In the case of Defex, I think it is safe to say that they have enjoyed some early success.

Is this story a masterpiece? Heck no. I could spend a few pages pointing out problems, nitpicks, and things I otherwise found to be silly. But then, who really cares? Most heroes have somewhat silly origins, and somewhat contrived stories. Whether they have a vat of chemicals dumped on them, are bitten by a radioactive bug, or are struck by lightning – superhero books always have played fast and lose with scientific reality, and Defex is no different. In fact, that is one of the things that makes the story so enjoyable – that it doesn’t try too hard to take itself so seriously.

Granted, I did have a few nit-picks, but then, I always do. There is a tiny, tiny bit of politics snuck into the story a few times for no real apparent reason – thankfully, it wasn’t to dominating, and was easy to ignore. If there is one thing when a comic writer feels the need to take a moment and preach to the reader – I appreciate that it was kept to a minimum. Beyond that, there are a few technical inconsistencies within the story itself, but they aren’t anything that a little more vigilance by the editor couldn’t fix.

The art is solid and consistent – and though my artistic eye is still somewhat untrained, I think the art helps the story along quite nicely. But hey, as long as I don’t have to strain my eyes at a page to try and decipher what is going on, and as long as I can tell the characters apart without much difficulty, I am usually happy. I don’t know if it is intentional or not, but I also have come up with my theory about who the mole on the team based solely on clues I felt the art team left – and that, if it pans out, is all of the proof I need of good artist participation in the storytelling.

Bottom Line

If the other titles in the Aftermath line are as good as Defex has turned out to be, then I have to conclude that Devil’s Due has made a really positive step forward with this line. Longevity is going to be the real test, however, and that is something we won’t be able to judge for a long time. For now, however, I am enjoying the read, and that is the most important thing in the end. If you are a fan of the superhero genre, and have a particular liking for team-books, you might want to give this one a try. It has some good potential.

Defex is shipped monthly at a cover price of $2.95 per issue. Issue #4 will be available on shelves in February. For more information, you can visit the Aftermath mini-site at Aftermathcomics.com.

Credit Where Credit is Due
Defex is
Written by Marv Wolfman, with
Art by Stefano Caselli and Sunder Raj,
Lettered by Dreamer Design,
Edited by Mark Powers,
Graphic Design by Mike Norton, and
Published by Devil’s Due Publishing.

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