R.E.B.E.L.S. #4 & 5

Tony Bedard took his time getting to the main story in his DC space-comic, but now that he's arrived, we're in for a treat. Starro the conqueror is taking over the universe, and he has a parallel universe army of heroes and soldiers to help him do the job. Standing against him are the fractured races of DCU space, including the Dominators, the Psions, the Khunds, and odd hero teams like the Rebels and the Omega Men. I'm loving the sense of impending doom that Starro has, it really seems inevitable that he will win. But Dox is a smart cookie, and the Omega Men are pretty heroic, so I'm hopeful! This comic is the spiritual successor to the Invasion series of the 90s, so I'm loving it. Invasion #2 was my first DC comic after all.

After digging the L.E.G.I.O.N. that spun out of that miniseries, I'm hoping for more heroes from that book to join up with Dox. (I bet we get Amon Hakk linked up with Dox after issue 5.) The cast Bedard has put together is pretty darn neat as-is: Strata and Bounder seem fun, and Wildstar is turning into a neat hero who trusts Dox too much. It really is too bad Starlin is using so many good characters over in Strange Adventures, it would be nice to see Captain Comet, Adam Strange, or Starman dealing with this threat. Maybe Bedard can get Starfire? Lobo?

I will say I'm not fond of the idea that Starro the Conqueror is actually some ax-wielding barbarian. I hope that is just his designated lead-posession. It makes sense that Starro would have mindless drones as well as some dominated but still thinking "preferred slaves."
Claude St. Aubin's pencils are a tad over-reliant on cross-hatching, but he doesn't overdo the details. The heroes and aliens look fantastic, but what really impresses me is the designs on the Starro-controlled villains. Many of them look like nice little hero designs.

#4 - Excellent
#5 - Good