About Heroes

Author: Frank Tieri
Penciler: Clay Henry
Inker: Mark Morales
Cover: Jae Lee

Ahh the beauty of having a character that is as old as time. He could have walked around with Jesus or help the Romans with their sewage or found the cure for polio...wait nevermind this is Apocalypse we are talking about. Is this Godzilla Vs. King Kong? Wolfman Vs. Dracula? Actually this seems more like Billy the Kid Vs. Frankenstein's Monster. Frank Tieri does what he can with his limited knowledge of the characters, but overall an interaining story to say the least. The art really doesn't do anything for me, yes I like Clayton Henry when he was drawing Exiles and Alpha Flight. But his art is too clean for the book, not enough shadows and inks for a dark title. Jae Lee does an amazing job with the cover, wish they would have chosen him for the interior artwork instead.

So far the only Vs. I have seen in the book between Dracula and Apocalypse has been in a flashback from Romania in 1459 where Apocalypse's Dark Riders just run over Vlad the impaler's troops. Then Apocalypse just kicks Vlad down as he is trying to stand up. The next part of the story takes us to London 1897, where someone is killing members of the Akkab Clan (that someone is pretty obvious). This is just a set up issue, but according to Hamilton Slade for every evil that has been commited throught the history of mankind the clan Akkab has been behind it. They have done this in the name of Apocalypse, because his blood runs through them. Slade himself, believes he is Apocalypse, but by the end of the book we get a glimpse of the real master. There is a small interlude featuring Ozymandias in present day waking up his lord, but that's really all that happens in the first issue. An entertaining story, but I wish they had gone with a darker grittier artist to illustrate the story.