“Yesterday’s” Comic> The Ray #0

“Help! I’ve been overloaded by the 90s!”

The Ray #0

DC Comics (October, 1994)

“Missing”

WRITER: (Christopher) Priest

PENCILER: Howard Porter

INKER: Robert Jones

COLORIST: Pat Garrahy

LETTERER: Ken Bruzenak

ASSISTANT EDITOR: Ruben Diaz

EDITOR: Brian Augustyn

Martian Manhunter’s attempt to rescue a child from the remains of a former Justice League headquarters is hampered by the previous Ray looking for his son, whom J’onn brought into his new branch of the Justice League. It seems the Ray we met back in Justice League Task Force #0 found out that his mother is still alive. His dad uses their connection to share the story of why he didn’t let his son know his mom was still alive, but he isn’t buying it and demands Ray Sr tell his mother the truth, that he is still alive. But he can’t bring himself to do it.

This issue has problems from a technical perspective. I know the 90s liked to play with the gutters trying to use colors other than white but it’s more a distraction (at least to me) than setting the mood, which I think they were going for. There’s also one section, where Ray Sr is talking to Jr.’s friend (who is trying to get into Jr.’s computer), that has terrible flow so that you end up accidentally reading lines out-of-order, which means you have to double back and read it correctly, taking you out of the scene. And while this I assume sets up the next state in the Ray’s life, I really don’t know what’s going on.

Maybe this is a good series (I didn’t enjoy Priest’s run on Steel so I’m biased against that idea) but this is not a good story to be introduced. It feels more like a Marvel story than a DC story, with Ray Sr. attacking Martian Manhunter while he’s trying to rescue somebody and teen angst so thick even Darkhawk would tell you to chill out. I really can’t recommend checking this one out.