If you are reading Grayson, miss Animal Man or somehow want more Katana, this issue is for you. The Grayson story is a prelude to the current series, Animal Man is a recap of Jeff Lemire's entire New 52 run and Katana is an Ann Nocenti story through and through. For what it's worth, this is one of my favorite Secret Origins issues yet. Read Full Review

If this book just featured the Grayson story, I would give it an 8/10. But since there are two other stories that didn't really catch my attention, I have to give this a Read Full Review

This story was the one thing saving this issue of Secret Origins from being in the "don't bother" pile. I hope Mona Shards is in the regular series also. Read Full Review

Overall, this issue was interesting and I can see the reasoning as to why we got another Grayson origin within this series"but I think we could have focused more on another character to get some time in the spotlight. The issue also includes origins for Animal Man and Katana. Read Full Review

Just to note I'm reading this through Grayson the Superspy Omnibus so, this will only be a review of "The Candidate" in the context of that collection.

Overall this story was just felt kinda unnecessary, it's just a short establishment of who Dick is and what Spiral is. I fully understand that they wanted to include it because it's still technically part of the story but, even in that context I feel as though it should be towards the back as a bonus not the opening issue to the Omnibus.

I can understand the importance of this for somebody who knows absolutely nothing about Dick but for people do, this Is basically the reading equivalent of white bread.

Art is serviceable if a little lifeless.