The Last Heroes [2004] (Random Comics Theatre)

Random Comics Theatre

The Last Heroes [2004]

Created by Gil Kane and Steven Grant, EDGE was a planned four issues mini-series published by Malibu's Bravura imprint in 1993-1994. Because of financial difficulties with the publisher, only three issues came out at the time. A decade later this hardcover book was published by ibooks, reprinting the existing issues, adding the unpublished fourth. It doesn't really end, though, since as Grant mentions in the afterword the mini-series was the first of a planned trilogy, the remainder of which wasn't done by 2004, and I'm pretty sure not since.

I think this is the last feature of note that Gil Kane created. He remained active in comics with some short runs and fill-ins on existing characters until he passed away in 2000. It's also the last major work of his that he inked his own pencils, which is always a treat. Sometimes he got inkers with a heavy hand.

Overall, I'd say this is disappointing.  Kane's artwork looks really nice, but I found the story hard to follow, all the characters kind of bland and cliché. A lot of times I was unclear on whether I was reading a flashback or a current scene, and for someone who's read as many comics as I have there were an alarming number of pages where I read the word balloons in the wrong order.

There's definitely the germ of a good idea in here, and maybe it would have been realized if the series had gone the full twelve issues, but it's not obvious here.

So not sorry I have it, as a Kane fan, but can't really recommend it otherwise.