JSA vs Kobra #1 - DC

This issue had a very intricate and well thought out story-line to it. The title suggests that it's a JSA mini-series, but . . I'd venture a guess that it's just as important to Checkmate. It involves the JSA characters . . . there's a suicide bomber that shows up at the front-door of their mansion in the beginning of the book, but . . from there it seems that our story revolves around Michael Holt, Mr Terrific, Sasha Bordeaux, the Black Queen, and Checkmate. Eric Trautmann writes this. He's also very familiar with Checkmate as he wrote several issues of that series. The story is presented from 2 different perspectives . . Michael's and KOBRA's. We spend most of the story listening to Michael exacerbate over his inability to help Sasha, and trying to second guess KOBRA. He's always second guesses himself when dealing with a group like this. There's a randomness to their attacks, but . . he also knows, with a group like KOBRA, that there's a master plan. So the trick is figuring out how all the smaller attacks fit together, and then figuring out what their ultimate goal is. From KOBRA's side, we're basically getting a play-by-play on how to distract your enemy. It's almost like a game of chess . . . they're sacrificing pawns to draw out the bigger players from the other side. But ultimately, I think they'll underestimate Michael's resolve, and intelligence. I believe he's being set up as the hero to this story. Anyways, it's to early to really comment on the story itself. This issue is really just the opening salvo . . the explanations that put all of our characters in their proper places. But it seems like Eric's script is going to be smart and well thought out, so . . I think it'll be a good story overall. Don Kramer does the pencils, so the whole issue looks really good. There could be some important things, for the DC Universe that come out of this series . . we'll just have to wait and see.