There wasn't much of interest for me today so I decided to try the first issue of the True Believers limited series.

I'm not familiar with the writer, Cary Bates, but I remember Paul Gulacy's artwork from over the years and I've always liked his style. Also from flipping through the comic I got the impression that the main characters may be villains (and I like comics about villains) so I was intrigued.

From reading this issue I got the feeling that it's going to be more of an espionage type of thing, as opposed to a straight forward super hero story. But I could be wrong since I'm unclear on whether the main characters are actual good guys, (even though they do "good things" in this issue). While the story guest-starred the regular SHIELD suspects (Stark, Hill, Dugan), that doesn't necessarily mean the members of the True Believers are "bad", just that they're not registered with under the SHRA. The next issue has them going up against Reed Richards and/or the FF, but then again, in the current Marvel Universe, that doesn't automatically make them villains since Richards isn't the role model he once was.

Obviously I am left with questions about these characters, but I'm mostly just curious to know if any of them have appeared anywhere before this series? The names of the members of the True Believers are: Headtrip, Red Zone, Battalus and Payback. So if anyone knows something about them please tell me.

Did I mention that I liked this first issue? Thanks!

I was wondering about this series..I thought it was gonna be cheesy or for kids based on the name, but the preview was adult.

I'll have to pick this up, but I havnt heard of any of those characters either.

> There wasn't much of interest for me today so I decided to try the first issue of the True Believers limited series.

Bates was a long-time DC Comics mainstay, best know for his long stints on the Superman titles, the second Flash (Barry Allen) and Captain Atom. He's a solid, old-school writer.

I bought this only out of fond memories of Cary Bates' long DC tenure and Gulacy's MoKF and was blown away. I half-expected a Claremont thing where the writer returns and writes precisely how he did years before but Bates has definitely grown as a writer. I also like the fact that the characters were all smart, with no real plot induced stupidity. before I couldn't take New Warriors anymore Iron Man felt like an idiot to have reacted as the plots required but here he just seems like the real deal. Can't wait to see what they think they have on Reed Richards!