Now here’s what I want from a comic whose stated mission is to bring Planetary to the DC Universe – a century baby!
It’s not Jenny Sparks or Jenny Quantum, it’s… well, we’ll get to that, Outsider writers Collin Kelly and Jackson Lanzing save the reveal of her codename until the end of the issue. Before that we learn, via Drummer sharing the information the new Outsiders organisation has on her, Jenni’s history since she was born at the dawn of 2001. The details are different but as usual, the moods of a Century Baby affect the wider world. Spirit of the 20th Century Jenny Sparks got in a fug in the 1920s and sparked the Great Depression. Who knows what young Ms Cressi could bring forth? So Drummer. Luke Fox and Kate Kane cross from Metropolis to London to find Jenni.
She’s not thrilled, and runs away
Is that Batwoman making a funny? I do hope so. To be honest, I wish Kate Kane and Luke ‘Batwing’ Fox would keep up their Outsiders #1’s intention to keep the costumes in the closet. I realise this series has the name of an old DC team book but Spandex really does seem incongruous.
Anyway, in the end it’s Drummer who calms Jenni down and she comes to an understanding with her pursuers – and announces her new name.
Oh, now that’s promising. What could be more pertinent to a DCU version of a Wildstorm character than tying her into the neverending series of Crisis events. Would anyone be surprised were this maxi-series leading up to another multiversal conflagration?
Meanwhile, this is my favourite issue of the series so far, balancing expositional prose with dynamic drama. I still don’t understand the point of having Batwoman in here rather than a plainclothes person from the DCU who’s more obviously suited, such as Cameron Chase or Valentina Vostok, but she does provide that funny moment.
Mind, Drummer on superheroes is also rather excellent.
The one thing I don’t like is the continuing pretend sweariness of the dialogue. Just give us actual swearing, comic book curses or the traditional symbol porridge – anything but those ugly black bands everywhere. Mind, it’s not like characters cussing adds anything – did Alan Moore need this kind of thing?
Robert Carey’s artwork is a great visual fit for this series, his grainy, almost photo-realistic renderings bringing the main characters and settings to life. We immediately have an idea of who Jenni is, how she feels about the world. And as you might expect from a citizen of the British isles – Carey is Irish – his London is a lot more plausible than what we usually get in US-originated comic books. Plus, he draws excellent cats.
Valentina Taddeo’s colour art adds another level of excellence with natural tones that never bore and occasional explosions of metahuman magic. Tom Napolitano is the man with the black marker but he also gets to apply some stylish fonts throughout the issue – letterers really should be named on covers along with the rest of the core creative team.
And I do like Carey’s punk-inflected cover.
So, welcome to the DC Universe, Jenny Crisis. Hope someone survives the experience.
Too Dangerous For a Girl 2 
This is encouraging. Your reviews of past issues made it seem like this series was a major misfire, but this sounds like something I could read in collection. I like the art you feature here, too, so this may be a book for me …
What I like about Jenny Crisis is that while your mind went, logically, to the superhero crises (because all the ones back to COIE would’ve happened this century in-continuity), but I thought about the real world. If you were looking for a single word/name to sum up the 21st century so far, you could do worse than “crisis.”
Plus, with the last year of tech hype/news we’ve had, I think we are fortunate to have narrowly missed her being named Jen AI.
—bpm
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Oh, I’m applauding your interpretation of the Jenny Crisis name… hey, maybe Jenny Greenteeth from the Canterbury Cricket was a Century Baby?
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