Someone thought this issue cut it as a close? I mean, really? For twelve issues–for thirty-six bucks–they thought this cut it? The wife’s back from the dead. No one notices? She and the husband go flying around, no one notices? What about all the other super-powered people in Alpha One’s basement? No mention of them.

Ed Brubaker, when talking about a Doctor Doom series he was writing, said something about how the scariest part of Doom and his master plan is, Doom is probably right. Well, Alpha One isn’t exactly wrong here. When Cole gets up and gives his lame speech (how they wasted a whole issue on this nonsense is beyond me, could they have padded more?), he’s talking out of his patoot. It’s embarrassing. Worst is the news media applauds his asinine statement.

But the art… the art almost makes it worthwhile.

But not.

Ok, I predicted wrong. Instead of doing the pat, traditional ending, the solidly banal one out of a disaster movie, a melodrama, or a BBC show, Tomasi and Champagne instead decide to go with an idiotic all fight issue. I mean, Samnee’s art’s good here, real good, but wow, the writing is just stupid.

It’s an incredibly complicated issue because so much is introduced–like Cole can temporarily deafen Alpha One with his Jimmy Olsen signal watch (not exactly, but basically) or how he managed to open the wrong cage or how he gets super powers (that one will, at least, be explained next issue).

But it’s pretty clear they aren’t going to get into the interesting stuff. How Alpha One knows so much pop culture, for example.

Instead of going out strong, The Mighty‘s going to collapse on itself in a whimper.

It’s a disappointment; they can’t pull around.

It’s kind of like an Elseworlds title–instead of Red Son, it could be Superman: Iron Cross or something. Alpha One’s a Nazi, just a … altruistic one. His full origin is revealed here (it’s not really Superman, but it’s close enough) and it finally slows The Mighty down. The reader finally has to pay attention–too bad it’s happening in the tenth issue instead of the third or fourth.

Tomasi and Champagne never hint the truth about Alpha One’s sinister plans (actually, they’re just Machiavellian and the issue’s cliffhanger and limited time to resolve imply a particular ending) before this issue so it’s a bit of a surprise. It’s thoughtful and unexpected. Unfortunately, it’s a little too late.

After spending so long hiding the secret (in a series with way too fast pacing), there’s no time left for them to do really anything with it but quickly wrap it up.

Maybe it was a movie script. I can’t think a time DC did one of those before–adapting a movie script into a comic when it wasn’t an adaptation–but Marvel did it with a Dr. Strange series once. It’d really explain The Mighty‘s pacing; the series probably reads great in trade, without the breaks, just because it’s all coming at you, snap, snap, snap, and the cliffhangers in the issues just ruin the flow.

This issue is an all action issue beyond my standard use of the term. Absolutely nothing happens here except Cole running from Alpha One and having a couple, but not enough, tricks up his sleeve. It feels like a four minute sequence in a movie, which is why my comment earlier. It works as a visceral experience, but certainly not as a comic book.

And I still can’t believe they killed Cole’s wife off panel.

Again with the terrible pacing. It almost seems like Tomasi and Champagne are happy once they’ve got one conversation an issue; everything around it is filler. And this issue is almost entirely a talking heads book (with the exception of Alpha One getting pissed off and doing something really suspicious like bury a ticking nuclear bomb).

There’s still the lush color, so the book looks incredible–Samnee, who I’m mostly unfamiliar with, is a fantastic artist–but again, there’s a lot of writing issues.

It’s the bothersome logic stuff. A superhero–the only superhero–has time to sit around and watch over six hours of movies without saving anyone? Why has Alpha One forgotten about all of Cole’s suspicions (apparently forgotten)?

There’s also the first hint at the true origin of Alpha One. Tomasi and Champagne reference Superman as an inspiration of sorts, which works well.

Engaging but too short.