BOOM! Studios; $1.00

When Paul Jenkins teamed with Jae Lee for The Inhumans back in the glory days of the Marvel Knights line at Marvel Comics, it was one of those rare series in which every issue was a home run. We don’t want to curse this new series, but Deathmatch, which pairs Jenkins with BOOM!’s fantastic Planet of the Apes artist Carlos Magno, has that same feel to it. The first issue is certainly a home run, and since it’s only a dollar perhaps it would be better to call it a grand slam.

Beyond imagining, an unknown force has somehow captured 32 powerful heroes and villains (supes and fears, in the vernacular of the series) and is pitting them against each other in one-on-one fashion. And it’s not necessarily heroes against villains either.

In succinct fashion, Jenkins and Magno introduce one of the heroes, Dragonfly, the mysterious setting, the situation in which the characters find themselves, and more. For all the brevity, though, it’s not sparse. It’s the kind of material that like the best superhero comics hints that there’s so much more to know…

And we think it’s going to be fun following it.