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Commanders In Crisis #5 Review: Wildly, Boldly Ambitious

Published Sun, 14 Feb 2021 10:30:56 -0600

Many of us have become acquainted with the idea of "turning the volume up to eleven," whereas most things have ten increments from silence to maximum volume, and something intense goes past those limitations. Commanders In Crisis #5 is a wildly, boldly ambitious issue that finds the very idea of numbers to be too pedestrian as it literally hurls chunks of brilliance at you the size of a nation-state with no signs of relenting.

Commanders In Crisis #5 Review: Wildly, Boldly Ambitious — Commanders In Crisis #5 Cover. Credit: Image

Without spoiling anything, there are a number of amazing concepts here that — by themselves — could almost support the entire year's worth of stories in other books. For example, at one point, we are introduced to The Hindsite, a prison that "lags inmates one day in the past. We watch them here in the present. Hard to escape when any attempt for them already happened for us." Without getting into the poisonous reality of criminal justice in a carceral state, from a purely comic book hero standpoint, that's freaking amazing, and that was just a throwaway section that doesn't change the plot, knowing it ahead of time. Who comes up with something like that, let alone offhandedly?

Of course, the answer is Steve Orlando, who is writing this book like he has mere moments before it's the end of the line, and he's not leaving anything in the tank. This book has so many ideas that will make you stop, sit back, and go "whoa" that it's frankly unfair to your average book. There are very few books that came this hard at you: All-Star Superman or Vision, and those have practically elevated themselves into myth.

Let's stop for a second to talk about what we see on the panels. There is some NSFW stuff in these pages but done so (again) in the interests of presenting (literally) new ways of looking at things. A laptop screen or the closeness between intimates is pictured as fascinatingly as smashing through a ceiling or a grandiose reveal. Davide Tinto, Francesca Carotenuto, Chiara Di Francia, Nicolo Laporini, Manuel A. Puppo (there was some extra coloring help this issue), and Fabio Amelia ran the table with this bombastic, bigger than life story.

The only possible criticism is that, like when Willie Wonka's riverboat got going (the classic, not that Johnny Depp weirdness), could this be out of control? Could this be too much goodness, and it's ready to spin out of control? This creative team hasn't led us astray yet, and if that's your biggest concern, you're doing all right. RATING: BUY.

Commanders In Crisis #5
By Steve Orlando, Davide Tinto
NEW STORY ARC! Can Frontier save the Crisis Command after a secret from her past shatters their trust? As her team struggles to find meaning, vicious attacks mount from new enemies with empathy dead. Act Two of the event that births a universe kicks off as Frontier faces Thunder Woman, electric inspiration itself!

Commanders In Crisis #5