The Twelve: The Complete Series

This should in the same conversation as The Watchman, or Dark Knight. This is one of the best stories you'll ever read. Straczynski is a beast with his writing. The development of his characters in this book is outstanding. And the art: Chris Weston is simply outstanding. The detail per panel is incredible. It took me longer than usual to read this because I was too busy looking at all the detail in the art. This is a must read.

I was extremely happy to see this series collected and given the Marvel hardcover treatment. I personally think this is Marvel's best limited series from the past decade, at least out of those that were intended to be limited. This one almost went the Sonic Disruptors/All Winners Squad: Band of Heroes route and didn't get finished, due to apparently low sales and schedule conflicts for the creative team, which would've been a damned shame.The Twelve is the story of ten World War II-era mystery men, one mystery woman, and a robot who ended up in suspended animation during the fall of Berlin, only to be discovered and awoken in the present day. The tale follows the group's attempts to try and get back into society, in a world that has drastically changed in sixty-five years.Most of these characters only appeared once or twice in the old Timely/Marvel golden age comics, so anyone outside of a comic book expert has a blank slate to experience. I think the character with the most page time before this series was Electro, the robot who plays a pivotal role in several subplots in the story.J. Michael Straczynski, one of the pop sensations of the current crop of comic book writers, provides a masterful script that has pretty much everything a comic book reader would want. The art is by Chris Weston, who is never afraid to make people look like, well, people. I enjoyed his work on Grant Morrison's The Filth series, and he shines here.I would really like to see these characters brought into the Marvel NOW Universe, since they've all gone back into stagnation since the series ended. I suppose that's a pipe dream, since unless the character's slinging a shield today, the Golden Age is a long forgotten memory for the average comic book fan. Again, it's a damned shame, since The Twelve are great characters - fully-realized and believable.

I'm a sucker for Golden Age superhero comics, especially when they're revisited in modern times, so J. Straczynski's THE TWELVE was a slam-dunk purchase. Many comic book miniseries don't read as well in collected format as they do in the individual issues, but this one did.Straczynski skillfully weaves his plot around twelve heroes who were captured by the Nazis in the last days of World War II, and were all but forgotten. Intended for experiments in superhuman development, they instead spent seventy years in suspended animation when their cavern prison collapsed. The heroes were discovered and revived in 2008, each to face their own problems adjusting to the new era, and for many the loss of loved ones. But as they settle in, sins of the past and present begin to intrude.As good as Straczynski's writing and construction are, he gives rather short shrift to the non-powered Mister E whose primary conflict is in trying to reconcile with his family after changing their names in the 1940s to hide the fact that they're Jewish--not to protect them, but to gain better job opportunities and join the "right" clubs. It's the only personal story that doesn't really tie in with the main plot at all, and we only see a few glimpses of it. Mister E is really present only to give JMS a chance to speak on that flavor of bigotry.Chris Weston's artwork is excellent, though I found Master Mind Excello's expression to be comical at best and bewildering at worst. In nearly every panel he appears, Excello's face is screwed up in some odd grimace. I took to referring to him as About-To-Sneeze Face.But these issues are minor compared to the overall quality of the book.

I first saw this book at mhy local libraryh/ I glanced at the back cover and saw one of the "stars" was the Black Widow. I checked it out and started to read it and found out it was a Black Wpdow I'd never seen before! Not only that I'd never seen ANY of yhe other characters. I am so glad I read it though as it was one of the best books I've ever read. All of the characters are fascinating and the script was soo good! After checking the book out several times(because I loved it so much) I decided to buy it. On of the best decisions I ever made! TGhis is actually the second time Ibought this because I lent it to a friend and through no fault of hers it was stolen. So glad to finally have it again!!

This is my second copy of some form of TPB/ hardcover graphic novel for this limited series. My prior collection was in two volumes. The story is good, although clearly a little derivative of The Watchmen, and the quality of the volume is also good. While it is not exactly groundbreaking, it is still a fun read.

I greatly enjoyed this graphic novel, collecting all the issues of The Twelve. I'm an unabashed fan of J. Michael Straczynski, going back to his days running Babylon 5 and more recently his work on Sense8. His movie and television writing is excellent, and it was no surprise to me when I started reading his comic book works that they too are assembled well and written with great intelligence, wit, and emotion.The art is outstanding, especially the cover. Designed specifically to look old and worn, I did a doubletake when I first received this. I thought I'd been sold a poor quality used product. Upon closer look, though, it was actually in perfect condition.The story itself is not earth-shattering, but I think it's well constructed and interesting throughout. In some ways, it can be seen as Marvel's answer to Watchmen, as many of the same themes apply. It's not as good as Watchmen, but I am particularly intrigued by the question of why certain people choose the life of a costumed hero, whether they have powers or not. The Twelve tackles this question expertly, and I felt satisfied by the whole experience.

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