The Answer #1 cover image

The Answer! is a new, four-issue comic book miniseries created by writer Dennis Hopeless (Avengers Arena) and artist Mike Norton (Battlepug).  The series focuses on a librarian and an odd, masked crime fighter.

In The Answer! #1, we meet Devin McKenzie, an insomniac librarian who works at a research library.  Devin has a knack for solving puzzles, which results in an out-of-the-ordinary 30th birthday gift from her mother.  The gift leads to the “apeiron” website and Chip Carney, an ominous-seeming motivational speaker.  When things go crazy, things get really crazy when Devin meets The Answer!, a masked crime fighter with a giant exclamation point on his face mask.

THE LOWDOWN:  The cover for The Answer! #1, by co-creator and series artist, Mike Norton, does not convey how different this series is.  I don’t know if The Answer! is a superhero; he seems like a costumed hero/masked man type – more like The Spirit than Batman.  So The Answer! comes across less like a superhero fantasy and more like a mystery series featuring a resourceful heroine.  This is a girl-on-the-run tale, and of course, there is a man of mystery who happens to understand the conspiracy set against our girl-hero.

And I love it.  I like Norton’s clean, traditional art, which owes more to Alan Davis than to Bryan Hitch.  Dennis Hopeless’ script is smart, funny, and (dare I say) sassy, like its heroine.  Although I think that this first issue offers too much teasing, for my taste, I am delightfully surprised, and I want to read #2, now!

POSSIBLE AUDIENCE:  Readers wondering if they can find something both offbeat and good will find The Answer!