Commanders in Crisis #1 is due out October 14, 2020. — **Commanders in Crisis #1** is due out October 14, 2020.

By Zack Quaintance — I’m going to get right into this: Commanders in Crisis #1 is a very impressive, must-read comic, that makes me want to ask several questions of the creative team, chief among them: how did you all pull-off something that so many other folks in comics continue to fail at on a near annual basis? And how did you accomplish said thing within the limitations of a single creator-owned book?

The thing is creating a new fully-functioning and interesting superhero universe, one that has hints of a much deeper continuity and shared ecosystem than other non Marvel or DC superhero projects. Yes, writer Steve Orlando (who knows a thing or two about superheroes, to the point that former DC co-publisher Dan DiDio, says he knows more about DC Continuity than all of DC editorial) and artist Davide Tinto have made a new superhero universe in the space of a single issue.

And it’s a very good superhero universe too! Better than those at the center of some recent attempts to create a new set of comics to compete with Marvel and DC. That, however, isn’t even the point of this book. No, this is a book firmly-rooted in story, and that story is very very strong.

It reads like an idea that was too bold and — to be blunt — interesting for a larger superhero comics publisher, perhaps the very same publisher Orlando recently-concluded working for exclusively — ahem. But I don’t need to be coy about that, I don’t think. The intent of this book is very clear by putting crisis in the title. This is a book built on the shoulders of DC Comics continuity-altering massive crisis events. And it has a concept worthy of the association, with a group of heroes from different Earths across the multiverse coming together to fight to save compassion.

That’s all well and good, but what makes this even better is that being creator-owned enables Orlando and collaborators Davide Tinto, Francesca Carotenuto, and letterer Fabio Amelia to be entirely unpredictable and bold, and to put a clear value system relevant to our times at the center of this thing, making this a story rich with diversity, doing the right thing, and plenty of references for veteran comics readers. I think even readers who don’t generally enjoy superhero stories will find plenty to like here, although make no mistake, this is very much a superhero comic in the grand tradition of that lineage.

Overall: Commanders in Crisis #1 is an event story for a new superhero universe built (and built well) within the space of a single #4 comic. If you like superheroes at all, you owe it to yourself to buy, read, and love this comic. 9.5/10

REVIEW: Commanders in Crisis #1

Commanders in Crisis #1
Writer: Steve Orlando
Artist: Davide Tinto
Colorist: Francesca Carotenuto
Letterer: Fabio Amelia
Publisher: Image Comics
The last survivors of the Multiverse live among us under new, superheroic identities, five survivors of doomed worlds...taking a second chance to ensure our world lives on. A new twist on strange superhero comics, with a bleeding-edge eye on the modern moment, COMMANDERS IN CRISIS follows in the footsteps of Doom Patrol and Thunderbolts as five unexpected heroes come together to solve a murder unlike any other. The victim? Compassion itself…This is ideacide!
Release Date: October 14, 2020
Order It Digitally: Commanders in Crisis #1

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Zack Quaintance is a tech reporter by day and freelance writer by night/weekend. He Tweets compulsively about storytelling and comics as Comics Bookcase.