DC COMICS
WRITER: Frank Tieri
ARTISTS: Liam Sharpe, Rob Hunter
COVER: Liam Sharpe

The Extremists, a group of supervillains patterned after Marvel Comics biggest bad-guys (Dr. Doom, Magneto, etc.), face off against Monarch who commands an army of evil versions of DC heroes.

This third issue of this series focuses on one of the extremists, namely Tracer, a villain clearly based on X-MEN archfoe, Sabretooth. Tracer's origin is revealed to us just before he gets jumped by Monarch's gang, which includes evil counterparts of Superman, Wonder Woman and Batman. If you wanted to see Sabretooth take on ruthless versions of DC heroes, this is the place.

This miniseries has had some interesting twists and it does make the Extremists rather sympathetic without making them look weak. The "heroes" who fight the Extremists are a self-serving, unlikeable lot, so the Extremists actually end up looking like anti-heroes rather than villains.

But so much of LORD HAVOK... is devoted to exposition and flashbacks. This diminishes the main story, slowing down the action and muddling the plot. This miniseries is also clearly a send-up of Marvel's CIVIL WAR plotline-- but this only highlights how derivative the whole miniseries is. Instead of trying to stand on its own, the series loudly announces, 'hey look at all the Marvel superheroes, acting like creeps!'

The real problem with this issue is the poor art. It is simply too crude and scratchy. It looks like something the art team rushed out, just to meet a deadline-- and when they were really hungry. Maybe this style of art was done intentionally, to convey a sense of how sordid this alternate world is. But that doesn't make this comic any easier to look at. At least the fight scene is well-laid out, even if the execution is done poorly.

It gets one and a half stars, mainly due to the art.