Masterpiece

No, it really isn’t.

Masterpiece Lawford, or Emma to her friends, has just started college and before she can finish not introducing herself, the FBI shows up to apprehend her.  Only it’s not the FBI.  It’s a bunch of goons posing as FBI agents employed by multi-mega-billionaire Doctor Zero Preston.  Years ago, Emma’s parents ripped him off big time and he’s been seething about it ever since.  Her parents have since disappeared and now Zero has decided it’s time to get his pound of flesh from their progeny.  Anyone else would be screwed, but not Emma.  She’s got a plan to turn this whole setup on its head.

Then after that:  Nothing!  That’s right, “Masterpiece” initially feels like Bendis and frequent collaborator Alex Maleev are going to try their hand at an honest-to-god heist story with a memorably oddball cast of characters.  Except that the heist part is barely there and the majority of the story is about assembling the cast and screwing with your expectations about when everyone is going to start pulling things off.  Normally that would be a good thing except the familiar story structure for this kind of thing isn’t replaced with something interesting.  Just a lot of talk about how dangerous and/or exciting all this stuff is.

There was a time when the thought of Bendis and Maleev just doing whatever they want for six issues would’ve sounded like an amazing proposition.  Now, I just wonder why I keep spending money for regular reminders that the writer’s glory days are behind him.  Maleev can still deliver some stylish layouts, but a lot of this is him trying to prop up the constant yammering of the cast.  We do get a big, fat “The End” at the end of this volume, which is for the best as I’m not all that interested in seeing what this Masterpiece gets up to next.