Publisher: BOOM! Studios
Writer: Saladin Ahmed
Artist: Sam Kivela
Colourist: Jason Wordie
Release Date: OUT NOW!
Price: $3.99

Detroit 1972. Racial tension, police brutality and Mafia style mutilations of the equine variety.

Abbott #1 has all of these and right in the middle of it is hard-nosed, chain-smoking tabloid reporter Elena Abbott, the black Lois Lane. As if that’s not enough, only Abbott knows that a series of grisly crimes are the work of supernatural forced called The Umbra, the same occult nasties which killed her husband. Her only allies seem to be her straight talking editor and her second husband, now divorced, Detective James Gratham.

Like Superman’s Girl Friend, Abbott’s nose for a story will only get her into trouble. Unlike the future Mrs Kent, she has her own girl of steel street cred which makes her a much more realistic investigative reporter, and solid, personal, aims apart from needing a caped boyfriend to hustle up the aisle someday.

Prejudices and stereotypes abound in Abbott #1 but this is 1972, so the world was pretty much nothing but prejudices and stereotypes back then. Have we changed that much or have the stereotypes and prejudices simply evolved into something different? Philosophical questions aside, Abbott #1 takes a slice of history and sets it out for us so that we can decide for ourselves if the world is a better place now than it was back then.

Of course, the supernatural overtones don’t hurt one bit when it comes to establishing Abbott #1 as a thoughtful, though provoking and very different kind of book. I would expect this story to run and run.

 

Reviewer: Gary Orchard
Reviews Editor: Steve Hooker