Ex Parte #1

Ex Parte #1, April 2002, Lone Star Press
writer: Bill Williams
penciller: Coy Turnbull
inker: Rus Sever
colorist: Thomas Mullin
letterer: Thom Zahler

Remember when Namor decided to attack the surface world for its indiscretions against the underwater realm? What if Namor was arrested and tried for his crimes as an international terrorist? Ex Parte is a series about a lawyer working super-criminal law, and in this first issue, this is her case. Writer Bill Williams doesn't mire his legal fable in legislative mumbo jumbo but successfully balances courtroom drama with a fair sense of comic book bravado, like Law & Order meets Heroes. (Williams cites The Prisoner as an influence.) Coy Turnbull's art is crisp and expressive, rounding out a solid initial effort for this series . . . and, to connect the comics I've read on my work-related respite to San Diego, Mike Wieringo, who I mentioned in yesterday's review, drew this issue's cover, which seems to double as an actual prologue panel for the ensuing material. For a new series, Ex Parte left a classic, tasteful impression -- it would've been a crime to handle this kind of story any other way.