Danger Street #3: Metron Needs to Relax!

Tom King and Jorge Fornes start this issue off with one of the freshest comedic openings possible, combining the old timey story book telling aesthetic with the modern times. Needless to say, I probably chuckled a bit too hard when King’s narration of “the ceremony of the oracle was a complicated one that required mastering elements of the ever unknown” gets paired with Fornes’ depiction of Lady Cop struggling to use a copy machine. The subtle comedy doesn’t stop there, as the issue transitions into a conversation between Metron, High Father, and Darksied where the old fashion, overzealous, Kirby style, preamble gets made fun of in a wholly relevant but respectable way. 

There’s a point in this issue when King has some fun displaying his knowledge of the DC universe and the callbacks are a lot of fun. Lady Cop is looking through all the blue superheroes and runs by a photo of electric blue Superman, probably one of the worst eras in comics. It’s played off for as much of a laugh here as it should be considering how much flack people give that character. King never ceases to disappoint when reminding fans that he’s as much of a fan as we are.

One of the parts of this series that most fans have been looking forward to is Tom King’s return to the Fourth World. His most celebrated work is arguably Mister Miracle (with Mitch Gerads) and he famously worked on a New Gods script with the old DCEU regime. I’m happy to say that this issue does not disappoint. We got a glimpse of it in the last issue, but this issue jumps all in with the introduction of characters like Metron and mentions of Lightray, Mister Miracle, and Big Barda. But the most important player here is Orion. Fans of Mister Miracle should know that this version of Orion does feel a little different than he did in that series, but it’s nice to see King focus on other players outside of the most obvious choices. He feels more like his classic, in continuity, counterpart than anything else. Orion is a character that has a lot of potential, but often gets put to the back burner, so I’m excited to see what King does with him here.

Fornes’ art here continues to be fantastic, especially when he draws the Fourth World, capturing the most subtle facial details that really help define the characters, while drawing the most detailed and artistically inspired settings that exist outside of my imagination. I do want to give a specific shoutout to Dave Stewart, whose colors really bring a vibrant sense of life to this book. Outside of the AMAZING cover, the different settings and characters are all colored with unique palettes that set them apart from one another in extreme ways. Manhunter’s blood red costume looks wildly out of place on pages that take place in the mundane world, but also stay true to the character. Superhero costumes have become more and more drowned out in popular media, especially on film, so it’s nice to see a colorist go all out with the bright and vibrant colors that make this series feel like a classic.