C.O.W.L. #1 Review

Who or what is C.O.W.L. and how do they help Chicago? Read on to find out.

The official description from Image:

Welcome to the “Chicago Organized Workers League”— the world’s first Super-Hero Labor Union! While C.O.W.L. once stood as a beacon of hope against an epidemic of organized crime and an unbeatable “brotherhood” of Super-Villains, the union now faces its fiercest foe yet—a disillusioned public. In targeting the last of the great villains, C.O.W.L. attempts to prove its value to the world and to each other, while staving off villainy from both outside and inside its offices.

C.O.W.L. has been a series that I personally have been looking forward to for sometime as with the marvellous creative team, the sixties Chicago setting and the superhuman element I was hoping for something amazing. From this issue alone we don’t get this. The start of the tale is very confusing as with a lack of proper introduction or context for the sequence it takes a bit of time to work out what exactly is going on. Following that however the story does start to get interesting.

Kyle Higgins and Alec Siegel take us into a world of super human’s and crime. The duo open the series in a interesting all be it questionable fashion as bar the opening sequence the development and concept of the series was really intriguing. What impressed me most about this issue was the aftermath of the opening sequence as the writers handled the variety of the reaction in a way that added a bit of dynamic to the issue. On par with this was the question of what C.O.W.L. will do now that their last superhuman threat has been taken care off.

Rod Reis who’s best known as the colourist of Aquaman and Justice League returns to his illustrating routes with this series producing wonderful artwork throughout. The detail of his work is truly outstanding and along with the characters facial expressions it adds a dynamic flow to the issue. Every part of Reis’ art is however crucial to the final look as the pencils, inks and colours all add their own layer of tone and if Reis didn’t produce all three himself we could have gotten a very different look.

C.O.W.L. gets off to a good all be it questionable start as bar the confusing opening sequence the series itself seems very interesting, showing a lot of promise. Recommended.