VOLTRON: DEFENDER OF THE UNIVERSE # 0
© 2003 Image / Devil's Due

Mania Grade: A-
Authors: Dan Jolley, Mark Brooks, Clayton Brown
Publisher: Image / Devil's Due
Price: $2.99

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VOLTRON: DEFENDER OF THE UNIVERSE # 0

Four people with special abilities have been recruited for a top-secret mission: one an imprisoned hot-shot pilot; one with a reputation for being anti-social; one with a talent for technology (and intimidation); and one a sixteen-year old computer genius. Together they will be sent to the planet Arus, where Allura, the heir to the throne, has had a vision of the future defender of her world, an avenger named Voltron.

Much as with the MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE book last week, I had my doubts about this one - namely because, of the two VOLTRON animated series I grew up with, "the one with the lions" was my least favorite. I can't even tell you now why I disliked it so much - I simply never watched it. But Dan Jolley's reimagining of that very concept in this zero issue is enough to make me go out and try to find that series, just to see if it's anywhere near as cool as Jolley makes it appear here.

Granted, as is the nature of most zero issues, not a lot happens in this book: we get brief (re)introductions to Keith, Lance, Sven, Hunk, Pidge, and Allura, the first four of whom now have full names and the beginnings of realistic background stories, and we get our first glimpse of the "new look" Voltron in Allura's dream. And yet Jolley imbues the whole experience with such a sense of urgency that even though we know what these guys are being recruited for and what they're going to be doing once they get to Arus, we still can't wait to find out exactly how it's going to happen this time around.

A great deal of credit has to go to artists Mark Brooks and Clayton Brown. Sure, on the face of it, VOLTRON looks not much different from any of the other Devil's Due productions: it's slick, the layouts are busy and just a tad bit disorganized, and the colors are both dark and vibrant. But this is also the best that these particular characters (and this particular giant robot) has ever looked, even when they were brought back in their computer animated versions - a series I also ignored, on the advice of several friends who said it wasn't worth the effort. The same can't be said of this version, though - thanks to Jolley's scripting and Brooks' and Brown's art, VOLTRON finally is as captivating as it always should have been, and so far it looks well worth the effort. Can't wait for issue number one...