Reviewed: Rising Stars 3 by J. Michael Straczynski, Christian Zanier and Ken Lashley

The plot: The "Special" investigating the murder of two of their kind learns the fate of Lee Jackson, the first of the "Specials" to take a life.

The "Specials" are superpowered beings who received their abilities during a single moment years ago; all the fetuses still in the womb were affected by "The Event" and have now manifested superpowers. And someone is bumping them off.

Straczynski begins to reveal his arc here; every time one of the "Specials" dies, the rest of them are made more powerful. Energy cannot be created or destroyed, it can only be transferred. It's an interesting conceit, one I'm sure JMS (as Straczynski is known online) will build much of his plot around.

Straczynski is famous as the man who created Babylon 5, then plotted out five full years worth of stories, always with the greater arc of one long tale with a definite beginning, middle and end in mind.

Babylon 5 was a spectacular success despite many, many limitations. It built an audience despite being syndicated on a patchwork quilt of stations that aired it at varying times (sometimes at varying times on the same station from week to week), despite having actors whose characters had been planned out for the full five years leaving well before the end of the series, despite a frequently weak first season, and most of all despite the fact that the final, crucial season aired on a network run by congenital idiots, TNT.

Straczynski told an amazing tale of heroism and humanity, drama and action, depravity and nobility. And the amazing thing is, that's what he said he would do right from the start.

And that's why I have faith in Straczynski and Rising Stars.

Pointless Trek vs. B5 arguments aside (you're not qualified to debate it unless you've seen every episode of each, in order, and I have, and B5 is better, so there), Babylon 5 is a singular achievement in the history of television. Straczynski had a vision, and in large part, that vision made it to the screen uncorrupted. He is to be congratulated for delivering one of the best series in the history of the television medium, not just the science fiction genre.

So I am curious if Straczynski can do it again.

He tried to recreate, or extend, the universe (and by extension, the success) of B5 with Crusade, the scattered and unsatisfying sequel that aired for 13 episodes on TNT.

I blame the nitwits at TNT for the failure of that series. The occasional flashes of brilliance that came through were pure Straczynski, and the parts of the show that sucked were clearly inspired by the editorial interference of the TNT braintrust.

So I don't hold Crusade against Rising Stars.

I've read the first 3 issues now, and I am hopeful. The art (especially in the first two issues, whose penciler has now been replaced, much like B5's first season Commander Sinclair) has not much impressed me. The look of the first two issues, especially, reminded me of nothing so much as Jack Chick's religious comics--everyone seeming slightly sleazy and underhanded. If the heroes in this story are really meant to come off as heroic and idealistic, any of them, I'm not getting it. Even with the new artist, everyone seems slightly evil, or at least amoral.

Straczynski clearly has thought out the full story, and it is interesting, although not revolutionary by any stretch of the imagination. He has thought out what it would take to give people superpowers, and he has mapped out the consequences to the world of having beings such as these running around loose.

I'm intrigued by the plot, and anxious to see how it is revealed. If Straczynski holds true to form, there will be surprises galore, because (quoting B5) no one here is what they seem. Straczynski always has a surprise up his sleeve, no matter how well we think we know any of his characters; I'm sure that will hold true in Rising Stars as well.

I had a bit of a tough time remembering details (and names) from the first two issues, and Straczynski may want to consider working more information into his scripts to keep the readers up to date. Randy Lander has also suggested a "What Went Before" box on the inside front cover, and I think with as complex a tale as Straczynski obviously means to tell, that is a must.

I also think he and the editors need to take a good long look at the artwork. This story will not be served well by Image-style flash--even the work of the new artist in this third issue, to my mind, does not serve the story as well as it should. I think this story would be much more powerful and affecting in the hands of, say, a Steve Rude or Dave Lapham-type. Someone capable of showing both innocence and corruption, heroism and subtlety. For now, we're getting a lot of flash, fairly well drawn, but not meshing with the words on the page. That's fine for a piece of crap like Fathom, but Rising Stars can be something much more special than that.

I'm along for the ride either way, but as a friend of mine once said, and it's one of my favourite quotes, "there should be more here."