the Web #3 - DC

Well the Web's little franchise experiment . . it kind of blew up in his face. Last issue John Raymond decided that there was just to many people out there that needed his help for just one man to handle. The requests on his web-page were just overwhelming. So . . he decided to give out what he called Web-hosts. Basically it's a franchise kind of thing. He put out a request for people that may be interested, and then he set up the guidelines for the computer to pick who would receive his gifts. Some were ex-military, some were just people with a grudge, but some honestly wanted to do some good. The problem . . as seen by the Justice League . . is that there's a whole bunch of new vigilantes out there with no training going at anything that they might perceive as 'wrong'. So . . at the end of last issue, Batgirl punched out his lights, and Oracle shut him down. Overall, he's got good intentions. But without any way to police his Web-hosts, he's just thrown some 'power' into, I'm sure, more than a few undeserving hands. Oracle ends up making a deal with him. 'I have some cutting-edge software that will overhaul your system. It will give you eyes around the globe and access to millions of encrypted databases. I'm sure it can help you find one man. In return? You bring the Web-hosts under some sort of organizational umbrella and agree to coordinate their efforts with those of the Justice League so we stay out of each others way.' John isn't overly happy with that, but . . he doesn't have much of a choice. And once he goes through the headache of trying to talk some sense into these hundreds of people that he's given suits to . . he finds out just how effective Oracle's 'upgrades' are. He uses 'crowd sourcing' to basically anybody who'll listen if they've seen Dr Archer. He immediately gets a response. Between twitters and cell-phone pictures he knows exactly where he's at and what he's doing. Once he goes to confront him, and is about to kill him, he realizes that he's being watched by millions. Some agree . . some don't. But the point is . . his every move is being watched. So he takes the unconscious Dr Archer to the police. Later, when he goes home, April comes over the confront him. She tried to get him to leave these people alone, but now that he's stirred things up she's afraid that they'll never be able to get John's brother's real killer. 'Dr Archer was just a foot-soldier. The man who ordered the hit on David is Deuces Wilde.' He did it because . . not for money . . not for power, or secrets, or some other hidden agenda . . he did it because . . 'He thinks he's in love with me.' I think this book shows a lot of potential. Angela Robinson and Roger Robinson are doing a great job. It's inventive and original, and they keep just enough humor in there. It's sarcastic, but not 'campy'. I think this one is going to work. Now the Hangman feature . . I got kind of bored with it. I'm not saying it wasn't interesting, but . . as I was reading it I just kind of felt like . . 'who cares?'. I think John Rozum is doing the best he can with what he's got. It's kind of hard to develop a character, and his supporting cast with only 8 pages to work with. Once we get to know some of them better, maybe I'll be more interested. But for now . . the art is the best part of the story. It's by Tom Derenick and Bill Sienkiewicz. Together I think they do a terrific job. This one . . we'll just have to wait and see.