Review by Ian Keogh

The big threat when Brian Michael Bendis wrote Superman was a secret organisation called Leviathan, who managed to infiltrate and incapacitate all government covert organisations. Such was their effect it took the entire Event Leviathan graphic novel to deal with them. Except it didn’t properly, and their threat just faded into the background as Superman’s priorities shifted. Those frustrated at Leviathan’s story not being concluded are directed to Checkmate.

Despite bearing a similar logo to an earlier DC series under that title, this is barely connected. That old Checkmate is but one of the organisations effectively disbanded, and this concerns a plan to bring Leviathan down organised by a new character calling himself The King bringing together a group of known, if sometimes lesser, characters with covert experience. They use the now obsolete name.

Right from the start there’s a problem. It’s well established that after what happened no-one trusts anyone else, yet just because Steve Trevor says so, everyone’s willing to trust The King, even when they don’t trust each other. This is a group including tenacious journalist Lois Lane, Mr. Bones, who formerly headed his own secret service, and the Question, paranoid investigator. There’s the further irritation of Bendis ensuring the dialogue is smart as the priority, and to be fair there are some very good lines. However, he’s lost the art of keeping the story in focus, so those good lines don’t add to an already appetising meal. And the meal is appetising, There’s a lot of clever storytelling that drip-feeds information by frequently flashing back to past either in order to explain something or to set up further mystery.

It’s all drawn by Alex Maleev in a manner avoiding movement as much as possible. The characters pose, they stand around talking and they scowl at each other, but rarely do they move, and when they do it’s rather stiffly. With that limitation in mind, it’s art that tells a conversation-heavy story as well as might be expected with effort put into background detail.

Initial misgivings notwithstanding, the plot plays out efficiently enough until the final chapters when it begins to unravel if logic is applied. A surprise drops toward the end when a new character is introduced, but for most it’s likely to be a “meh!” moment in a plot that eventually distils down to Leviathan wanting extra tech. There’s another big disclosure at the final knockings, one so big that Amanda Waller appears from nowhere for the announcement, but it’s another “meh!” moment for anyone under fifty and there’s no accompanying bolstering information. It’s also a trick Bendis pulled at Marvel to no great effect. A further revelation is the power behind Leviathan, and that’s another disappointment for anyone who knows the cast because the person concerned already has a technologically advanced organisation capable of causing global chaos. Now they have two.

It all leaves Checkmate as a series with some fine moments, but disappointing overall.