newuniversal: 1959 - (Writer: Kieron Gillen, Art: Greg Scott & Kody Chamberlain, Color: Val Staples)

It's 1959, a few years after the Fireworks, which created a group of superhumans on Earth. The NSA is tasked to investigate the event and, ultimately, to kill every superhuman for the good of the human race.

It's an interesting look at paranoia in the face of the unimaginable, although somewhat weakened by the fact that the evolutionary science that underlies the theory is a little too close to 'comic book science' rather than the real thing. That might not be a problem on its own, except when a comic seems to prize realism. As a result, we get the government agents jumping to strange conclusions that make no sense in logic or science. This is entirely Gillen's fault, as a lot of this is from the main book, but it still rankles here. Taking the science for granted, it's not a bad book though.

Still, it's ultimately rather forgettable. Might be interesting if you're particularly fond of the newuniversal universe and want to explore every aspect of it, but otherwise you're essentially paying for a one issue flashback to the main story. About the most interesting aspect of the issue is the introduction of a classic Marvel hero, but that was revealed in the previews and so doesn't come as much of a surprise as it might.