Soldier Zero #12

Sorry, no blog yesterday. It was a rough day at work and at home.
Today, I have another comic from BOOM! and Stan Lee. Soldier Zero is one of the three characters that Stan Lee created for BOOM!'s superhero universe, or maybe it's the POW! Universe (Stan Lee's company is called POW! Entertainment). Anyway, as I said with Starborn, I'm really liking these books. It's a fresh perspective on some old concepts and it really works so far.
Starborn borrows a little bit from Freddie Freeman (Captain Marvel, Jr.), a little bit from Blue Beetle, and a little bit from Iron Man, wraps them all together in one package and creates a dynamic new character that I really want to know more about as we go. And not just more about the character, but more about the universe around him.
The story thus far as written by Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning with art by Javier Pina:
Stewart Trautmann is a paraplegic war veteran. In the first issue, a meteor shower drops an alien parasite on earth which shortly thereafter bonds with Stewart Trautmann. When Stewart activates the parasite or the parasite activates itself to protect Stewart, he becomes Soldier Zero. The Soldier Zero parasite forms a set of alien biotech armor around Stewart and gives him back the use of his legs among many other incredible abilities. No dynamic of forming weapons in the armor like Blue Beetle, instead the armor works more like a set of Iron Man armor for firing blasts and generating force shields etc.
Stewart is still learning about the Soldier Zero parasite and has actually begun to form a symbiotic relationship it seems with the parasite as time passes. The few things that we do know already is that there is apparently an entire civilization in space somewhere that uses this parasitic armor, and there intentions for Earth seem to be unclear.
In this issue, we've learned that there is something special about Soldier Zero, Stewart Trautmann, as a hugely powerful time travelling race of giant beings known as the Inheritors let him know that he is not a Soldier Zero, but THE Soldier Zero. Stewart is destined for something major, but even he is unaware of what that might be.
This issue also ends the chase of Soldier Zero by government agents as they reach a truce at the end of the issue with an offer by Stewart to work with the government if they comply with certain things to remedy some of their actions of the last few issues. There seems to be an acquiescence, but we know that there are always likely to be ramifications from allying withe government as a super human.
The character concept is great; I really like Soldier Zero and his universe. I often wonder if Stan Lee will ever run out of ideas, and I'm glad he hasn't yet. The writing has moved us really far in the last year since this character was introduced and there is still more to learn it seems. We've gotten teases of the future, but nothing so drastic as what's actually going to happen, so the suspense continues in the title. Great writing by Abnett and Lanning. The artwork fits this character well. It's a litttle stylized at time, and that works really well for the alien tech we regularly see in this comic.
Overall, a great book that I would recommend for anyone who likes Blue Beetle, Iron Man, or just a decent sci fi comic.

Thanks for reading.