Noble Causes is Jay Faerber's attempt to cross the superhero and soap opera formats.  The first few issues were critically well received, but didn't sell enormously well - presumably the reason for the shift to the "series of miniseries" formats, and hence another first issue.

Of course, the superhero and soap opera genres are a natural fit.  Soap opera elements are heavily present in most traditional superhero comics.  Outright superhero soaps have been attempted occasionally, in books like Young Heroes In Love (which was actually quite good, and might have sold if only it hadn't had such a terrible name).  What's unusual about Noble Causes is that it abandons the superhero side of the format almost entirely in favour of stressing the soap opera aspects.

In the first series, beloved family son Race Noble married his civilian girlfriend Liz, only to be unfortunately vaporised by an outer space death ray while on his honeymoon, leaving Liz stuck in the family on her own.

In this issue... well, Liz largely recaps all this in an interview juxtaposed with scenes of what's really going on behind the scenes.  Readers of the first series will get a distinct sense of deja vu.  In fact, that's an unfair impression - there's plenty of plot advancement in here, as extra plot points are dropped in along the way.  Nonetheless, the structure of the story leaves the story feeling like a rather lengthy recap.  Up to a point, though, that's a necessary evil in writing a story which is clearly aimed at attracting new readers.

The artists on the lead story are Ian Richardson and John Wycough, names that honestly don't mean anything to me.  The general style is much as the first series established - crisp, clean and bright - giving the book a fairly traditional superhero look that plays to the gimmick.

This issue's flashback back-up strip is Celeste's first meeting with Frost, which struggles a bit in the plot mechanics.  Frost's castle location is on the web, but nobody's actually bothered going there before Celeste?  I'm not convinced.  Since this series is driven by character, I can let this sort of thing slide up to a point, but this is really asking a bit much.

Anyway, if you didn't read the first arc, this is an excellent opportunity to start.  If you did, then yes, there's a lot of recapping in here - but not as much as it first seems.  Pick it up.

Rating: A-

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