The Book of Lost Souls is the latest book from the prolific J Michael Straczynski, (Rising Stars, Supreme Power, Amazing Spider-Man, Midnight Nation) who is both a writer and creator of comic books and television series Babylon 5 and Battlestar Galactica. He is also working on a feature film version of Rising Stars.

This brooding debut issue, entitled “Introductions All Around,” does exactly what it aims to – it introduces us to all, or almost all of the players. The feel of this book is something akin to Hellblazer without the wit and sarcasm, or perhaps Lucifer on a scale less grand, simpler and somehow less human.

The plot is simple enough, though its implications may not be. The central character is now given the task of finding lost souls and trying to influence them so that they move to the side of darkness or light. The “Dark Man” (no, not the The Darkman from NMM – he no longer exists in our realm) is a sort of devil character who tries to influence our protagonist to tip the scales toward darkness. Will he give in? Read the dadgum book.

I give this a must read* at least for those interested in reading something with some depth and more potential than your grandmother ever mistakenly thought she saw in you.

-Peblee

*IF the second issue has the pay off of being cool; I say this because we haven’t seen the guy try to influence anyone (the supposed focus of the book), nor have we seen any other lost soul, except for the main dude himself. In short, we just don’t know what kind of book it is going to be, except that it is going to be brooding.