Next to the character of Wells and his various incarnations, my favorite character on The CW's The Flash is Cisco Ramon. Played by actor Carlos Valdes, the character is witty, smart and super chill. With his love of pop culture and Star Wars, I think we'd make great friends if we were to meet IRL. But when it comes to the comic book version, I know very little about the superhero known as Vibe. That interest in knowing a little bit more about the hero is why I chose to pick up this book a while back at my local Ollie's store.
The New 52! incarnation of Vibe/Cisco Ramon is similar to what little I know about the character. He's Latino. From Detroit. Has some sort of ability to alter the vibrational frequencies of not just our Earth; but the entire gambit of the multiverse. And he was a part of the Justice League of America- the original version.
Here we get Vibe's origin of how Ramon obtained his powers as a young boy when he's unfortunately sliced in half by a boom tube during an early invasion from Darkseid's parademon forces. Cisco survived the incident. However, his older brother died in the rescue attempt. Due to his ultra-close encounter with boom tube technology, Cisco Ramon's latent meta-human genes were unlocked and the ability to command the multiverse was now his.
As Cisco's powers strengthen, this puts him in the crosshairs of ARGUS. The feelings of the clandestine agency is that if Cisco can't be used as a super-powered weapon against potential foes that slip into our dimension then Cisco too is a potential threat to global safety.
Now training to be an agent of ARGUS, Cisco is given the codename VIBE. Vibe's powers help him to sense when someone has breached the barriers between our universe and their own. Things seem to be going great as the newest wunderkind at ARGUS until Cisco is tasked with apprehending a mysterious woman named Gyspy who seems to have familiar air to her.
I felt like this book had two tones to it. Vibe was originally a 10 issue series. The first 4 or 5 issues in which Vibe is learning the ropes of being an agent of ARGUS feels like the Denzel Washington film Training Day or something similar. Cisco learns that being a hero doesn't always mean being a good guy. Then when Vibe meets Gypsy things shift over to The Fugitive (pick your version). Add some DC Comics touches like Apokolips and some forgotten characters from the 60s and 70s getting a modern retouch and you've got the basis for one of the more enjoyable titles to come from the New 52! experiment.
I did have one problem with this book and it's more of a design flaw or issue with the marketing/editing department. This book is touted as Volume 1. As I said early, the Vibe series lasted 10 issues, from 2013-2014. All 10 issues are reprinted here. So, why call this a Volume 1? The back cover even confirms that this book contains the 'full 10-issue series' and there's a 1 on the spine of the book!
This isn't the first time DC has done this. They did it a lot with the Showcase Presents B&W reprint collections and some other works. It irks my OCD to no end and it kinda ruins how my bookcase display looks. I know this is a small thing. But it makes my brain itch to no end.
A good story poorly marketed. Definitely a reason NOT to judge a book by it's cover!
Worth Consuming!
Rating: 8 out of 10 stars.
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