DC continues to sift through the detritus of its event comics, by launching a new Infinity Inc series featuring the version of the team from 52.  Interestingly, the issue appears on shelves without any sort of banner indicating the tie-in, perhaps reflecting the growing perception that they've become counterproductive.

In 52, Infinity Inc were a corporate-sponsored team of superheroes put together by Lex Luthor, and featuring Steel's daughter Natasha as a member.  They all lost their powers at the end of the story, making them unlikely subjects for an ongoing series.  Fortunately, this book is written by Peter Milligan, and "unlikely" is his speciality. 

Reading the first issue, I'm left with no clear idea of what the series is going to be about in the long term.  The world doesn't need yet another team book, and "Infinity Inc" itself is just a recycled trademark taken from a long-defunct series.  There has to be another angle, and with Milligan, I'm sure there will be.  I just haven't a clue what it is.  But the story does more than enough to hold my interest and give Milligan time to tell his story. 

He can be a frustratingly inconsistent writer, and he's usually best when he follows his quirkier impulses.  As a completely mainstream writer, he's merely competent, but when he's allowed to go nuts, he can produce remarkable (and remarkably strange) stories.

So it's nice to see that Milligan is in offbeat mood with this title.  The story involves the three surviving team members - Natasha, Erik and Gerome - all trying to deal with the mental fall-out of being summarily packed off back to the real world.  Since Milligan is writing, they all get suitably exotic psychiatric quirks.  Steel is sufficiently worried about his daughter that he starts trying to track down her old teammates to get ideas on how to help her, and threatening weirdness duly starts to occur.

Not many writers can get away with a first issue in which four separate characters visit therapists, one of whom is an existentialist.  It's not what the conventional superhero readership is looking for, generally.  Milligan has written a story of talking heads intermixed with creeping weirdness, something that's way off on the periphery of the genre.  But if you're willing to run with it, it's very well done.  Milligan excels at this sort of thing, and although a couple of flashback panels suggest that artist Max Fiumara would be quite at home with a conventional superhero book, he seems comfortable with this material as well.  There are a few wooden moments dotted through the issue, but for the most part his characters are decently expressive.

It's not going to be for everyone, and to be honest, I can't see it being more than a modest success.  But on its own terms, it works well.

Rating: A-

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