Deathmate Black

Deathmate Black comes out of the gate swinging, ready to give us something that fights the then-current stereotype of Image Comics as all visual flash with no thought in the writing.  Unfortunately, though, this first page barrage of infodump doesn’t give us any real explanation of who the characters  are, expecting that a reader will be familiar with ALL the Valiant and Image heroes from the get-go.  Even as someone who was reading the majority of Valiant product in 1993, I couldn’t identify everyone on the page and 20 years out, it might as well be written in Swahili.  Worst of all?  This issue is narrated by Fairchild, making her very first appearance, but taking for granted that we already know her deal.  The Troika (consisting of two Valiant Heroes and an Image villain) are stunned when they’re suddenly attacked by an unknown quantity, the heroes called Gen 13!