According to the solicitation information for The Crusades: Urban Decree, the prestige one-shot revolves around an 11th century Crusader who comes to San Francisco in the 21st century to render judgment on us, the citizens of the present, for all of our transgressions. Just the sort of stuff you would expect from the team of Steven T. Seagle (House of Secrets, Sleepy Hollow), Kelley Jones (Sandman, Batman, Sleepy Hollow) and Jason Moore (Sleepy Hollow).

I have enjoyed a lot of Seagle's other work on other titles, and while the dialogue and pacing are crisp and consistent throughout the story, there is something about The Crusades that's just not grabbing me and saying, "Hey! You have to read this!!!" There is a lot of potential here for sure, and you have to bear in mind that this story is only a prelude to the upcoming monthly series, so things could really end up panning out in the long run. But as it stands right now, Seagle has yet to sell me on the idea based on the story presented in Urban Decree.

The artwork by Kelley Jones and Jason Moore is pretty amazing to look at, and Jones' use of facial expressions and explosive action scenes really help to drive the story along and get you involved in the events being depicted. The dialogue also comes to life with these two on pencils and inks, and little touches like the historical asides - most notably the sequence on the origins of toilets - work so well to offset and 'inform' the reader so as to earn kudos on both sides of creative team.

To me, this is the perfect example of a great creative team with an untested concept and limited ability to really snare in new readers based on anything but their previous track records in the industry. If you like Seagle, Jones or Moore, you'll probably give this book a glance while you are browsing around in your local comic shop. And even though DC has promised that this will be an 'affordable' prestige book, I still don't see the new readers coming in droves for this one.