Ex Parte

    (Lone Star, 2002)
™ and © Lone Star Comics

Lone Star Press Editor Bill Williams kicks off a new series that could be easily be titled Astro City Law. After all, super-villains are entitled to legal representation, just like any other criminal. Williams mines relatively unexplored areas in comics in the first issue. Aside from Batton Lash’s Wolff and Byrd or Marvel’s Daredevil, the U.S. judicial system rarely comes into play in a world full of metahumans. Ex Parte is a comic book in which the practitioners of law take center stage. What kind of legal defense can be raised for the ruler of an undersea kingdom who has destroyed a New York landmark and killed hundreds of people? Williams doesn’t try to be incredibly creative, by borrowing heavily from old Sub-Mariner stories as well as from today’s headlines. But he doesn’t need to be, since these characters and scenarios only serve as ways to present what happens to the bad guys after they’re taken down. And the premise is ripe with potential. The story is intriguing, because most of the battles take place in the courtroom, not in the streets. And artists Coy Turnbull and Russ Sever make both kinds of battles interesting. The same creators are slated for the first two issues of the series before creative duties are turned over to a rotating crew of writers and artists. No objections with the first issue.

— Jim Johnson
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#1

April, 2002
Cover Price: $2.95
4 copies available from $1.44 		Bill WilliamsCoy Turnbull