Review – Jenny Sparks No. 1: Fight of the Century

Jenny Sparks #1 – Tom King, author; Jeff Spokes, artist

Ray – 9.5/10

Beam: Tom King continues to explore every corner of the DC Universe for standalone comics and now takes on his biggest challenge yet – the Wildstorm Universe. This 90s world has had many false starts and reboots over the years and currently plays a key role in outsider. And he takes on one of the most complex characters out of it – Jenny Sparks, the spirit of the 20th century. We’ve already seen the new incarnation of this “Century Baby” in that other title, so what else is Jenny doing here? Well, mostly she’s living it up and having casual sex, which gives her the aura of a female cosmic Constantine. But that’s mostly because she’s busy waiting – for a crisis big enough for the heroes to summon her.

This crisis manifests itself in the form of Captain Atom, who makes a very interesting choice for an antagonist. After all, his origin story is pretty horrific and could easily drive a man insane, and there have been plans to turn him into a villain before. Here he seems unstable – almost aloof – as he spins a trail of chaos through the city, obsessively raving about being a god and killing people indiscriminately. This prompts Batman to call out Jenny – who fights him in a brutal section that ends abruptly and in a very unexpected way. It seems clear that this comic is being told in a non-linear style, as much of the story in this first issue follows neither of them.

Instead, it follows a collection of random people who are woven in and out of the story. An old man who finds out he has cancer. A professor struggling with her love life. A smug agent who has some hidden depths. A judge with a complex personal life. And a cheerful bartender who is unburdened by the world around him. How do they all factor into the story? That’s not clear yet, but they start to converge by the end of the issue as Captain Atom’s plot escalates. I don’t think you need to know much about what happened in the Wildstorm universe for this issue, but the lore about it certainly highlights things in an interesting way. Another fascinating King read that will no doubt be slow to give up its secrets.

Reviews of all DC issues can be found under “DC This Week”.

GeekDad received this comic for review purposes.

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