Crime Syndicate #1

Crime Syndicate #1

DC Comics 2021

Written by Andy Schmidt

Pencilled by Kieran McKeown

Inked by Dexter Vines

Coloured by Steve Oliff

Illustrated by Bryan Hitch

Coloured by Alex Sinclair

All Letters by Rob Leigh

Spinning out of Dark Nights: Death Metal, the Multiverse is reborn-and Earth-3 with it! In this six-issue miniseries, witness the true origins of the malevolent makers of mayhem known as the Crime Syndicate as a common foe unites them! But how long can alliances last between villains like these?

Also in this issue, it’s the origin of Ultraman in our special backup story drawn by superstar artist Bryan Hitch!

Oh I got excited for this one when it was announced, or I saw that it was coming, either way this is long overdue. Since their introduction and learning Earth 3 was home to the evil Justice League I have wanted to see more of them. They have such interesting and crazy dynamic between the characters so I’m thrilled to see what Andy is doing with them. Though I miss the original Power Ring and Johnny Quick because let’s face it their personalities were utterly fabulous!

The opening here had me instantly hooked! I mean seeing this version of President Kennedy and what happened in Dallas on this earth well hell that’s enough to get almost everyone invested and involved in this book! I really like the way that this is being told and how the story & plot development we see through how the sequence of events unfold and how the reader learns information is presented exceptionally well. How we see the characters and those around them, Ms. Grant and Jimmy for example, are being fleshed out through their dialogue and how they act and react to the situations and circumstances they encounter. This is some superb, tight and well constructed writing folks and the character development is mindbogglingly brilliant! The pacing is super and as it takes us through the pages introducing us to the characters and their world we’re really treated to a hauntingly familiar yet twisted tale.

How this is being structured and how we see the layers within the story emerge and grow this is a showcase for what I hope will lead to more Syndicate limited-series runs. How we see everything working together to create the story’s ebb & flow is really marvellous to see. I couldn’t be any more impressed with what I am seeing within these pages.

The interioris here are really solid as well. We see this classic comic book style with a twist of penciller Kieran signature style which together creates some really good visuals. It is really nice to see how Dexter is able to ink these pencils and highlight Kieran’s work this way. How we see backgrounds incorporated into the composition within the panels and how we see depth perception, that sense of scale and the overall sense of size and scope to the story is extremely nice to see. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a remarkable eye for storytelling. The colour work we see here is divine! How the various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work showcases a tremendous understanding of how colour works. The creativity and imagination that we see throughout is phenomenal!

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This is what I’ve been waiting for! The Crime Syndicate is a huge staple in the DCU and Earth 3 never got its proper due so to see this being done the way that it is should be applauded and celebrated! It is books like this that will keep fans happy and DC in the forefront of discussion when it comes to must have/read books!