BLACKOUT

When I picked up “Blackout” #1, it was because I liked the story starring Blackout that ran last year in “Dark Horse Presents.” While Frank Barbiere and Colin Lorimer do a nice job of moving forward with the story of a hero whose suit can shunt him into a strange darkness dimension, his thunder ended up getting stolen by a backup feature. Then again, that backup feature features the long-awaited return of King Tiger. It’s not that “Blackout” #1 is bad — it’s not — but rather it doesn’t feel as fresh and fun as a #1 should. This needs to grab the reader right off the bat, and instead watching Scott Travers’s nightmares followed by workplace drama — well, it’s hardly “I must find out what happens next” level of engagement. I liked the “Blackout” stories in “Dark Horse Presents” enough that I’ll stick around to read more, but without that I’m not so sure I’d be interested. Even the big “to be continued” closing page doesn’t have quite the punch that it’s clearly aiming for. This might