Edgar's wife, Virginia, has died, and he's having trouble coping. (Fun fact: Virginia was his cousin and she was thirteen when they married. He was twenty-seven.) He's been sneaking out of the mental hospital to visit her grave at night, and after he gets caught (yet again), he returns to his room to find that ever-annoying raven. And a vision of a young girl hanging herself. As much as we've come to expect the former from Poe, the latter is somewhat jarring. Poe seems to agree with this; he freaks out.

Freaking out is apparently frowned upon in mental hospitals, so his older brother, William, is called to take him away. As he does so, William, a police constable, is called to the scene of a murder and is forced to bring his mentally unstable brother along. Luckily for the police force, however, Edgar goes all Sherlock Holmes on the crime scene, discovering these things called clues that the police on the scene hadn't thought to find. (Although, being Poe, I guess it's more accurate to say that he went all Dupin on the crime scene.)

These clues, fascinating things that they are, point to a supernatural motivation for the killing, implicating the victim as a practitioner of the "Dark Arts." Turns out, this is the third in a string of such murders. And it's up to Edgar A. (and his brother who thinks he's too nuts to be allowed out alone) to solve the case.

While maybe it seems like the whole Poe/supernatural mystery thing has been seen before, this still proves to be an enjoyable read, partly by letting Edgar share the spotlight with his more level-headed brother, partly by taking more the tone of one of Poe's mysteries than an action comic (so to speak), and partly by giving the reader enough questions to want to pick up the second issue. Why can Edgar see visions of tragedies that have already happened (such as the hanging girl)? Does this have anything to do with the death of his wife? Or with these murders? And what do Roman coins have to do with anything? And, perhaps most importantly, what's that giant red-eyed being on the final splash page of the issue and will the Brothers Poe escape it?

Written by J. Barton Mitchell, with art by Dean Kotz, Poe #1 is released in July.

It starts with John's Leave It to Beaver nightmare, complete in black-and-white with Aeryn decked out in June Cleaver attire, which, while definitely being a thing of nightmares for her and John, actually kind of looks good on her. (Then again, I don't know what wouldn't.) After he awakens, we're not-so-subtly clued in to the fact that he's having domestic internal crises, due to the fact that he's having second thoughts about settling down to a life of domesticity with Aeryn and their son, Deke. (Nickname for "D'Argo?" I don't know. Either way, there's a baby, and it's adorable.)

After a conversation about settling down to raise a child vs. doing interesting things (which somehow also manages to touch on Chiana and Jothee's sex life), Aeryn and John join the rest of the gang for a trip planetside to go to a market. Some are going for supplies, others (the married Morad and T'Amra) are going to retouch their marital tattoos, and yet others are ostensibly going to wander. Deke-the-baby is left aboard with Pilot, who might just be the best potential babysitter I can think of right now. Sadly, though, there aren't any adventures in babysitting in this issue, as Deke mostly just sleeps. If this were a Hitchcock film, I guess Deke would be the macguffin. (That's probably not true.)

Anyway, at the marketplace, everyone begins to bicker. And that's it. (Or is it? The "To Be Continued" suggests otherwise.) At any rate, it seems difficult to define what's happened here—perhaps the planet's atmosphere makes everyone extra-irritable, more prone to arguing? At least, that's the suggestion. But since they get out all right, one can only hope that the next issue addresses the ramifications of this incident, because, when coupled with the several-page Cleaver household nightmare at the beginning, the marketplace argument epidemic wasn't given nearly enough page-time to convince me of its importance. Meanwhile, John and Aeryn have a conversation about modern art and the relative merit of representational vs. non-representational work. (Apparently John isn't such a fan of modern art, but he did once take a field trip to the National Gallery in DC. I guess we have that in common, only I like modern art. And, actually, that whole scene in the comic as well.)

I'm still undecided what I want from a first issue in general, torn between exposition and an attention-grabbing incident worthy of a Bond film opener. Here we have something between the two that more sets a tone that's fun, not too serious, and wholly enjoyable. I hope this tone carries through to the next issue. And that we finally figure out what's up with the angry marketplace effect, because logic tells me that a planet with an annoyance-inducing atmosphere is just about the worst place to set up shop. Looking forward, then, to finding out.

Story and script by Rockne S. O'Bannon and Keith R.A. DeCandido, art by Will Sliney. Color by Zac Atkinson. Farscape: Strange Detractors #1 is available in comic stores now.