What can I say about this book? Potential is screaming banshee-style from the first page to the last. However, this book is a bit confusing. First of all, it seems that there is mass destruction from a fight, then either in the midst of the fight, or before it happens, we see a superhero mother and her young blue-white child in a space-station. She explains that she is going to die and that the child has to stay there alone with only a very not human computer for companionship for, like, the next 20 years. Later, we discover that apparently the kid’s sister was killed in the destruction, that his other sister survived, and that the battling super-types were their parents? Is this right?

Now, the story is told from the past perspective by the experiences of the kid and his computerized babysitter, and in the present through flash-back by his surviving sister while she speaks to her psychologist about her problem with healing people. I mean that’s a real curse, being an EMS worker with the ability to bring folks back from the dead, right?

But, like I said, the story has potential. There seems to be no overriding plot set up yet, and therefore this story could go anywhere. Naturally, whether they are siblings or not, we can expect the kid on the space-station and the EMS lady to meet each other sometime soon. We can also suppose that, being children of power-wielding parents, who maybe were having a bit of trouble in their marriage and were, therefore, forced to destroy each other and thousands of civilians in a firey, earth-shattering blast, these two will no doubt have powers which come with startling responsibilities. The storyline entitled “Inherit the World” is written by Justin Gray and the famous Jimmy Palmiotti. These two show that they understand the intimates when it comes to superhero books, i.e. the reference to a supposed JLA model super-force called “First Light” who battled the fierceome character, or characters known as “The Religious” (both sound like Falwell-style whack-job fanatic organizations to me). And, there is of course the set up of two people destined to encounter one another, whether to good or ill ends.

The presence of character setup combined without any particular plot being set into motion does cause problems for even the most open-minded of readers. For me it was vaguely annoying, although the book was worth reading. The art (Santacruz) is somewhat secondary, and leaves me wondering if there is a problem with the colorist (Jose Louis Roger) or the printing company who did this book. Perhaps Santacruz uses just too little ink over his pencils; but, other than the rescue scene where we are shown Rene Doyle’s (the surviving girl) ability to resurrect the deceased without the aid of a Lazarus Pit, the art seems too vague. I say this because the art is not intended to be surreal, where vague would be prime, but here the art is far from clean and fluid, and it carries little or no weight. The colors seem to barely be there, and not because the book is trying to have a watercolor look.

Potential seems to be a high commodity at WildStorm these days. Majestic 1 was light on story, but heavy on fun and art, despite the ever-changing faces of its characters. This book is heavy on story, light on plot, and plain feathery on art. Santacruz: your art is not bad, you just need to apply some more ink and tell Mr. Roger that it ain’t Easter, so throw away the pastels. I know it seems harsh, but despite these observations, I have genuine hope for this book. With a great setup, it could be the next big thing for WildStorm, but you have to appeal to the art fans to sell a mainstream book. So, take my words as a comic fan's advice, not as cruel words from an undereducated, snobby moron.