After a couple of false starts and an iffy reintroduction to the DC Universe, Milestone is back! Sorta kinda. John Rozum and Frazer Irving's Xombi #1 comes out today, and it's the first launch of a series featuring Milestone's characters to since 2001's Static Shock!: Rebirth of the Cool. Rozum's work on the original series (with art by JJ Birch) was a deeply weird trip through religion, esoterica, and legends. After the jump, check out a five page preview of the first issue of Xombi, including a peek at Brendan McCarthy's cover.Xombi stars David Kim, a scientist who unwillingly found himself at the center of the weird world that exists alongside real life. After his assistant injected him with nanomachines to save his life, David was swept up in situations that were beyond his control and, to put it lightly, positively absurd. He was joined by several interesting representatives of this secret world, among them Sister Norma, the Nun of the Above, who had the ability to read reality like it was a third person novel, Catholic Girl (think Sailor Moon, but Catholic, and you're getting close), and Rabbi Sinnowitz. Everything was fair game in Xombi, from fairy tales to horror stories to serial killers to science fiction. It was a weird and scary little series, but the sort of series that has a smile dancing at the corners of its mouth, too. It showed you the scary side of things, the side we aren't supposed to see, and nudged you in the ribs at the same time, as if to say, "Did you see that? Crazy, isn't it?"

The relaunch is written by John Rozum and drawn by Frazer Irving, and I couldn't think of a better creative team for this series if I tried. Rozum clearly hasn't lost a step, and Irving has been one of the best artists in the business for years. Irving's color palette, with those sickly pinks and greyish blues, is perfectly creepy, and he has the art chops to make his characters emote and express themselves appropriately. I'm excited for this book in a way that I don't usually get, because it looks like this is a launch that's firing on all cylinders. I mean, DC even hired Brendan McCarthy, king of weird comics, to do a variant cover. I have high hopes, and this preview suggests that my faith isn't misplaced.

You might be put off by the fact that Xombi #1 follows up on a series that hasn't had an issue in fifteen years, but don't be. Trust in Rozum and Irving to toss you right into the deep end and fill you in as they go along. Don't let your unfamiliarity with Xombi keep you away from what may well be the best new series at DC in years. Click to make these preview bigger, and enjoy.

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