Exiled on… the Read of the Week – 11/4/09

The Great Ten #1 Story: Tony Bedard Art: Scott McDaniel and Andy Owens Cover:Stanley “Artgerm” Lau Publisher: DC

I have been waiting for this book since the end of 52.

The Great Ten is a fascinating experiment in the DCU. Will anybody want to read about a team of heroes that are not from the Western world?

It makes sense that China would have their own meta humans. Why wouldn’t they? I mean they have 3 times the population of the US, so you would figure they would have 3 times the number of meta humans. But DC’s (and Marvel’s) books are very US – centric. (DC has had the Global Guardians, the JLE/I, The Soviet Union had the Rocket Reds, there was an attempt in the annuals a few years ago to introduce more global heroes) And of course we just got to know Japan’s newest team, the Super Young Team (from the awkwardly titled, but super fun to read, FINAL CRISIS AFTERMATH: DANCE)

But this is about the Great Ten, China’s official Super Heroes. Each issue in this 10 issue series will focus on a member of them, giving us their origin. Issue one spotlights the Accomplished Perfect Physician.

This first issue, written by Tony Bedard, is the first chance we have to really see how these characters are as a team, outside of any interaction with the Western DCU characters. The story telling is crisp, and the character voices are distinct(as are the characters themselves). Scott McDaniel and Andy Owens create a colorful, vibrant China, and introduction of the rival Old Gods (led by the Jade Emperor) signal for more great story to come.

Grade – A