Empathy is dead. That's not a metaphor or anything. The concept of empathy simply doesn't exist anymore. Naturally, it's going to be a bit of a challenge for a group of superheroes to have to deal with. And it proves to be quite a challenge for the people working on their story as Commanders in Crisis makes its way into its fifth issue. Writer Steve Orlando struggles with a very challenging and deeply poetic idea for heroic fiction, which is rendered for the page by artist Davide Tinto. There's a tremendous amount of potential in the series's basic idea, but Orlando and Tinto aren't quite living up to it. 

With empathy completely gone, things are slowly unraveling in the world. The US is on the verge of a serious break-up. Prizefighter finds himself dealing with an armed of a TV writer with a chillingly sinister writing tool. Elsewhere, Sawbones confronts a prisoner of her involvement in the current tide of events. Somewhere in Philadelphia, Seer gets a bit of a history lesson before heading off to handle the threat of an emerging "radiosapien" threat that could complicate everything else that's going on in the world. As always, things continue to be very, very complicated for the members of Crisis Command.

Orlando seems to have great difficulty in envisioning a world without empathy. If empathy were ever to completely evaporate, things would unravel MUCH more quickly than Orlando is allowing for here. A society without empathy is like an organism without the ability to feel pain. Things would break down in a big way right away. The heroes ARE engaging in the world with some degree of empathy, so it stands to reason that it's not dead, only...dying. Beyond that, Orlando continues to cram way too much story into way too small space. Everything seems rushed. It's not a fun read.

Tinto has a strong sense of superhero form and poise with the art. His work has a classic Bronze/Copper Age feel about it. At work on a team book, his style feels like a cross between the simple, iconic linework of John Byrne and the immersive detail of George Perez. It's just too bad that Orlando is trying to tell as much story as he is here. Tinto isn't given enough space to really explore a mood or form. If Orlando could lighten-up on the pacing just a bit, Tinto might have the space to explore a more dynamic visual world for the heroes to exist in.

The radiosapien villain and the TV writing AI application that are given brief encounter on the page in a single issue of Commanders in Crisis would be enough to fill a couple of issues of their own. Orlando and Tinto pound both of these encounters into an issue that also features an attempt at Watchmen-esque history, romantic interpersonal relations, and WAY too many other things to allow the reader to settle into the book. It's frustrating. The concepts that Orlando is exploring ARE interesting.

Grade: C