Number Of The Beast #6 (OF 8)

I have been enjoying the series so far. I'm not entirely sure as to exactly how this series will tie in to the upcoming Wildstorm event, but after reading Wildstorm Revelations, and then this series, I'm pretty sure they'll all tie it together nicely.

What has this book been about? Well, if you're an avid Wildstorm Universe reader, you would try to look for "Big Two" equivalents with the characters here. WildCats/Authority is to JLA as Gen13 is to Teen Titans. Most people would then say that the people of Welcome To Tranquility are the WSU's JSA, but apparently, that is not so.

In Number Of The Beast, a group of heroes and villains from the same generation of the Tranquility folks were put to sleep by the US government. They were preserved and kept alive in a bunker in Nevada for a time when they would be useful again as super weapons that the government can utilize. These time-lost super-powered humans were living in a virtual world where they constantly fight each other, rescue innocents, rob banks... basic old school superhero stuff with a bit of their own lives in the mix. Think: Truman Show with a variety of super-powered Jim Carreys. I sense a Matrix comparison somewhere in here too. The "Superman" of this group, called The High realizes this as he is injected into the system with the help of one of the villains who's power is to rise from the dead, When you die in the virtual world, you wake up in the real world and get put back to sleep by the agents watching over you. The villain who's name escapes me at the moment has been constantly trying to warn the heroes, but only when The High arrives does he find someone who listens. The High "kills" everyone in the virtual world, and everybody wakes up realizing it was all a dream. The issue ends as The Authority arrives onto the scene and are about to enter a huge brawl with these superheroes of yesteryear.

Good stuff and I can't wait till the next two issues are released to see how this all pans out.