In a quiet week for new releases, this seems as good a time as any to look at Grant Morrison's bizarre Seven Soldiers project, which has rather fallen between the cracks of this year's mega-crossovers.

Ambitious as ever, Morrison's big idea for Seven Soldiers is to have two book ends and seven four-issue miniseries, one for each of the Soldiers.  In principle the miniseries are supposed to stand on their own, but the whole thing should add up to an overreaching storyline.  The Seven Soldiers don't even exist as a team, but are presumably going to be drawn together to defeat the evil Sheeda in the big finale.

It has to be said that the project hasn't really delivered on the bit about all the miniseries being self-contained.  Shining Knight just sort of stopped, and Manhattan Guardian ends on a cliffhanger leading into the big finish - which isn't even due out until next April.  They don't cross over, as such, but it would really be more accurate to say that each miniseries follows one specific character's scenes in the over-reaching storyline.  To judge from the ones that have concluded thus far, if you're buying one of the minis as a completely freestanding project, you're likely to be disappointed.

Mind you, with the project built around D-listers like Klarion, the Bulleteer and the Guardian, and the common selling point being Grant Morrison's writing, this probably isn't such a big problem.  The minis work well as distinct threads in the larger pattern, and I suspect the overwhelming majority of readers are in fact buying the whole thing.

Mr Miracle is one of the higher profile characters, although with typical perversity, Morrison has chosen Shilo Norman, the third version of the character from the 1970s.  However, there seems to be some (frankly confusing) rebooting going on here, since what we've got is Shilo as a successful escapologist who's picked up the Mr Miracle costume and Mother Box somewhere along the lines, but doesn't seem to know anything about the New Gods until they turn up to start dragging him into their war - although everyone else assumes he's just having visions.

Despite a strong start, with Mr Miracle escaping a black hole in typical Silver Age fashion, and some wonderful artwork from the excellent Pasqual Ferry (who's going to miss the rest of the series after signing an exclusive deal with Marvel), it's a rather garbled start, which probably works slightly better for those who have somewhat more familiarity with the New Gods set-up.  We're obviously meant to be wondering how this guy fits in with the New Gods, but as somebody with only a sketchy knowledge of the characters, I'm left at the first hurdle, trying to remind myself who the hell the New Gods are and how much of this is supposed to mean anything to me.  That hasn't been a problem with any of the other Seven Soldiers reboots, but this one's just plain confusing.  The pacing is very choppy, and it's hard to know what's supposed to be a mystery, and what's just a reference that's going over my head.

The premise is good, and the art is fantastic.  But it's the weakest first issue yet for the Seven Soldiers project.  Fortunately, the strength of the other books that have already come out is enough to convince me to stick around, since god knows if I'd read this in isolation, I'd probably not be coming back.

Rating: B-

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