Echo: The Complete Edition by Terry Moore

Julie is in the desert taking photographs when she witnesses an explosion in the sky. Soon it begins to rain small silver spheres. They land and stick to her and her truck. Frightened she quickly drives home where she finds a larger piece of the mysterious silver in the back of her pickup. When she touches it the metal jumps and attaches to her shoulder. Soon all the silver spheres on the car and her body are drawn to the larger piece of metal. Soon her shoulders and chest are covered with what looks like metal, but is flexible like her own skin.

But she wasn’t the only person to be near the explosion. A deranged vagrant, who believes he is the biblical Cain (cursed to walk the Earth forever) also had some of the metal collect on his body; near his hand. Cain realizes that the metal has abilities, like shooting lightening out of his hand. Cain goes on a quest to collect more of the metal in order to bring about  the end of the world.

But where did the metal come from? A secret laboratory created it as a super=powered suit for the military. The scientists caused the explosion in order to test the how the suit would behave. The test subject who wore the suit was sacrificed on purpose. They know people were in the vicinity of the explosion, and they want their suit back.

Now Julie is being stalked by government agents and a super-powered mad man. Her only friend is a stranger, a park ranger, who believes his scientist girlfriend was the test subject for the suit. He wants to expose her murder while Julie just wants to be normal again. But when people start dying Julie can never go back. Now she has to save the world, and if she fails the world will end.

Echo is a really fun take on superhero comics that focuses more on characters and plot then wall to wall action. If you like previous work by Terry Moore, like creator-owned comics, or just need something different you can’t go wrong with Echo. It’s highly recommended and appropriate for ages 14 and up.