It seems like the past few years have seen more #1 issues than I can count. Universes seem to come and go like rain drops streaking across a window pane. Still, that means I get to go into my local shop a see something new every few weeks. This time I came across something interesting in, Telos. Convergence was a thing, and while it wasn’t my kind of thing –I switched to Marvel for a few weeks there– some people seemed to like it. It would seem that Telos comes from the aftermath of that even, and for what it’s worth the story here is pretty interesting.
The villain of the world-shattering CONVERGENCE event stars in his own new series! Set loose from his planetary tether at the end of the best-selling CONVERGENCE, Telos finds himself free and able to traverse space and time via a sliver of Brainiac’s powers. As this epic begins, he embarks on an odyssey, journeying across time and space in search of his past.
Telos was a prison warden of immense power that Braniac created to watch over some world or other and from what the internet tells me was the main villain of the Convergence event. I don’t know the details, and the book doesn’t give me any, so I’m just guessing on said details. What I do know is that the book opens with a bang as Telos begins ripping apart Braniac ships and forces. All throughout this time he is spouting of ancient Greek texts that the humans he watched over taught him. They also seem to have taught him what vengeance is and he is now putting those teachings into practice against a weakened Brainiac. It’s all really melodramatic and I love it.
Telos is a being of immense power, so much so that he seems clearly capable of ending Brainiac for good. The only thing that is keeping him from following through with the deed, other than DC needing Brainiac around for more stories, is that our green friend knows the location of Telos’ family. There is some backstory with Convergence that explains some things, but none of it makes sense to me, let alone the writers that were involved in that mess.
You can’t… nope, not going to fall into that comedy trap.
Writer Jeff King does a great job of starting out with a bang, but really losses ground as the reader isn’t given much to go on once things calm down. I can’t really be all that invested in Telos right now, even knowing he is there to save his family. It’s a noble cause, no doubt, but Telos’ turn from angry Greek lyric spewing demi god to begrudging pal to Brainiac feels rushed. Still, the book has a great pace and the art from Pagulayan is solid. Panels flow well into each other with a great focus on the action thanks to some really nice line work.
This should be where the book ends as it’s enough to fill a nice first issue, but things quickly move to the weird team-up of the two. Brainiac needs to get to the core of the planet he’s at to retrieve some Deus ex Machina that would bring him back to power. The problem with this is that Brainiac is in a weakened state and the A.I. by the very original name of Computo has evolved into a pretty powerful thing in the years since Brainiac has been traveling. Telos is sent to the planet to retrieve the Deus ex Machina and link up with some rebels that will help him complete the task.
I don’t know, it just all feels really rushed story wise. I would have loved to spend more time on the battle with Brainiac and getting more details on who Telos is because he looks like a pretty neat new character. Still, Telos #1 is a fun read and does its job to get you hooked for the next issue, so this one gets a recommendation, albeit a tepid one.
TELOS #1
Writer: Jeff King
Art: Carlos Pagulayan, Jason Paz, Sean Parsons, and Hi-Fi
Published by DC Comics
Release Date: October 7, 2015
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