Team 7 #3 Review

For everyone who has complained that the New 52 universe lacks a sense of cohesiveness and inter-connectivity, Team 7 is there to argue otherwise. The series features a variety of familiar names and faces carrying out various clandestine missions in the early days of the New 52 continuity. It's a testament to writer Justin Jordan that, despite the fact that most of the Team 7 members appear in other books set in the present day, their roles here are much more satisfying.

Team 7 embarks on a new mission in a remote part of the world in issue #3. However, the ties between this and the previous mission become apparent almost immediately. It's satisfying to see Jordan tie so many disparate elements together, even if some additions, like the guest appearance from Essence, feel a bit superfluous and incidental to the plot.

Continuing the trend of rotating leads, Deathstroke narrates this issue as he leads the team deeper into unknown territory. Jordan finds the right voice for this pre-Terminator Deathstroke. He's tough but not unsympathetic. Other characters like Grifter provide a healthy dose of banter and snark to offset Slade's more straightforward personality. In general, Team 7 is probably the closest thing readers will find to a replacement for Secret Six so far. This series is nowhere near that level in terms of sublime characterization and black humor, but there's no reason it couldn't necessarily reach those heights given time.

Unfortunately, the art takes another significant dip in quality with this issue. Team 7 is one of several New 52 books to lose its regular artist almost immediately, and replacement artist Julius Gopez hasn't brought the textured, black ops tone this series really needs. Gopez's characters are flat and lacking in energy, while the inking does little but add a bunch of unnecessary lines and crosshatching to the equation. But the book really falls apart in the final pages. At times the jumbled backgrounds and stiff figures look more like excerpts from a DC-themed coloring book than a high-profile superhero comic. But to be fair, the sudden shift in art teams has probably made sticking to DC's rigid shipping deadlines an arduous task in itself. The series deserves better visual treatment than this.

Jesse is a writer for various IGN channels. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on Twitter, or Kicksplode on MyIGN.

Source : ign[dot]com