The Ones

This comic comes with a cover price of $25.

It’s not worth paying $25 to read.

That’s partly because it’s only 152 pages.

It’s mostly true because it’s just kind of “okay” in terms of quality.

However, if you’re like me and you’re a fan of Bendis who also found it in a half-off bin at a convention, it might be worth a read.

That’s because this miniseries is basically a fun little goof on the idea of the Chosen One.  While the back cover talks about all the people who were once told they were the Chosen One now coming together to take on the actual One, that’s only part of the story.  It’s basically a bunch of familiar archetypes for the Chosen One – the Superhero, the Demon Fighter, the Conan-esque Swordsman, the Magician, the Baby (Who Grew Up) – all coming together because the guy who now manages all of the Prophecies has a new one for them:  The Antichrist has just been born on Earth and they need to take him out.

Yes, this is all about the Chosen Ones deciding whether or not they have to kill a baby to save the world.

At least it is for the first fourth of the story.  Then it turns into a lot of demon-slaying and discussing the actual nature of what everyone’s doing here.  Your enjoyment of this will likely hinge on how entertaining you find Bendis writing characters who are either just hanging out or attacking the problem at hand with an arch sense of self-awareness.  I can understand how some people may find it tiresome, but I enjoyed it here, helped along by a sense that I wasn’t meant to be taking any of this seriously.

That’s down to his entertainingly smartass antagonist and the appreciably cartoonish art from artist Jacob Edgar.  Even though he’s given a real diversity of protagonists to draw, he gets their specialties down quite well and is good with capturing their overall emotiveness.  Edgar may not nail the sense of carnage and destruction being called for by the story, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing as his broad linework reinforces the sense that we’re not meant to take this too seriously.

So what we ultimately have here is a cute concept executed decently well that is in no way worth paying $25.  For it to be worthy of that price point, you’d need to offer up a page count north of 200 or just be really, really good so that I don’t mind paying such a premium.  (For what it’s worth, the next podcast may involve a comic that fits both of those criteria.)  I realize that selling comics in this day and age is tough, but Dark Horse is doing no one involved with the making of this comic any favors by selling its collected edition at this price point.  It’s a lot easier to recommend what’s here for $12.50, though.