Recommended: Umbrella Academy

Complete-ish. Collections available from Amazon(US) or Amazon(UK)

Publisher: Dark Horse

Writer: Gerard Way

Artist: Gabriel Ba

 

 

Let’s start by getting this out of the way – Gerard Way is the lead singer of emo rock outfit, My Chemical Romance. So this must be another of those celebrity-name-appeal-cash-in comics, right? Wrong. In fact, ridiculously wrong; shame on you for even suggesting such a thing! No, regardless of its writer’s day job, The Umbrella Academy is actually something rather special.

The opening page of the first issue depicts a wrestler delivering a flying atomic elbow to a space squid. This is never again mentioned. It is not a significant plot point, but rather a scene-setting aside. And it does exactly what it is meant to do – establish that this story is set in a world where anything can happen. From this point on, the book does not let up.

We learn that 43 extraordinary children were born to unsuspecting mothers and that, of these, seven were collected and adopted by Sir Reginald Hargreeves, aka The Monocle. A world-renowned scientist and entrepreneur (and secret alien), his plan was to study and train the children at The Umbrella Academy so that their unique powers might one day be used to save the world.

Ten years later, and we get to see the children, referred to by numbers rather than names, in action as they battle an insane Eiffel Tower. Well, most of the children – 00.05 has apparently disappeared into the future and 00.07 is kept away from the fight due to her lack of powers. Flash forward another 20 years and Hargreeves is dead, as is 00.06 (The Horror). It is the funeral of the Academy’s patriarch that brings the disbanded team back together, and this reluctant gathering also sees the return of the still-ten-year-old 00.05 with a stark warning from the future.

What Way has somehow created is an inspired and meticulously planned narrative that appears, at a glance, to be the stream of consciousness of a madman. And Ba’s artwork complements this insane genius-style of storytelling perfectly, bringing just the right balance of order and chaos to the visuals. Are we particularly surprised when an adult Space Boy (00.01) shows up on the moon with his head on the body of an ape? Or when we learn that his best friend, Doctor Pogo, is a talking chimp? Not really, because Way and Ba have made such developments acceptable in their world. And their plan to do so was clear from page one, remember?

Not that the book is just a series of non-sequiturs and bombastic incidents. Behind the craziness, Way takes the opportunity to explore not just the supergroup dynamic, but also the bonds and conflicts of a most dysfunctional family. Hargreeves is gone, but his cold, inhuman influence is still felt through his children. Their strange upbringing has made them ill-at-ease, with each other and with the rest of humanity. The result is a comic as reminiscient of The Royal Tenenbaums as it is of any of the classic superhero tales.

Space Boy (00.01) and The Kraken (00.02) are the two who most embrace their heroic calling, but even they are still defined by the weight of their father’s expectations. Space Boy is effectively Superman, waiting at his moon base for a world-class threat sufficient to prove himself against – and to prove his worth to Hargreeves. The Kraken, meanwhile, has shaped himself into a dark avenger in the mould of Batman. He even has his own Commissioner Gordon in the shape of Inspector Lupo. But Batman, and The Kraken, are still heroes; still following the paths their fathers put them on as children. The tragedy is that despite the common ground the adopted siblings share as enemies of injustice, the resentment towards each other fostered by their father still drives them apart.

By the conclusion of Dallas, you will feel a strong connection to this group. Having shared their highs and lows, you will crave more. You will desire more new adventures, and you will absolutely require that the gaps be filled in (Death of The Horror?). But these things can only happen when Mister Way writes another chapter in his comic book saga. So please join us as we ask him: isn’t it time you stopped messing around with music and embraced your true calling?

Recommended: We3

Complete. Available from Amazon(US) or Amazon(UK)

Publisher: Vertigo

Writer: Grant Morrison

Artist: Frank Quitely

 

 

The difficulty with writing anything about WE3 is that it wouldn’t be hard to give away too much of what is essentially a very simple story. In fact, in writing this recommendation, we will probably use more words than Morrison uses in the entire book. Yet this simplicity and brevity actually service the story, allowing the frantic pace, once up and running, to never slow down.

The WE3 of the title are a dog, cat and rabbit, experimented on by some scientist/military types and transformed into living weapons – no, not hyper-aggressive brutes like Cujo, but rather calm, genetically enhanced soldiers in robotic armour, housing insane amounts of firepower.

We are initially introduced to the team during a mission. Showing only glimpses of the animals’ armoured shells and antennae-like LEDs, the action instead concentrates on their human opponents and eventual ‘victims’. This scene firmly establishes the lethal potential of the ‘biorgs’ and serves as a stark contrast to what we see next – the animals as animals, communicating in a distinctly unnatural manner, but conveying the most natural animal behaviour.

The inciting incident of the story comes when the military head of the WE3 program orders its decommission – and the termination of its subjects. This potentially throwaway scene, and character, are handled with great craft by Morrison, who allows us to linger on the General and hear more about his motivations. The animals have not simply outlived their usefulness. The General is genuinely concerned for their quality of life following the experimentation they have undergone. He considers his order to terminate, an act of mercy, ending the suffering of three one-time pets who were either lost or taken from their homes. And it is the attempt to get ‘home’, following the inevitable escape of the doomed doggy, moggy and bunny, that makes up the rest of the book.

The stars of the book are undoubtedly the three, and what Morrison and Quitely do so well, and seemingly with minimal effort, is nail their characterisation. The animals on the page are essentially the animals they represent in the real world. 1, the dog, is loyal, not too bright, and constantly seeking approval for his actions, be it from his handlers or a stranger he rescues from the river. 2, the cat, is more independent, and never attempts to hide his contempt for pretty much everyone. 3, the rabbit, is naïve and seemingly unaware of his own fragility, which causes him to wander directly into danger on more than one occasion.

As usual, Quitely’s artwork is beautiful and powerful, making up for in images what Morrison deliberately leaves out in words. There are, for sure, some gruesome panels and, in places, entire pages seem to revel in the carnage caused by the animals. However, this darkness is always offset by an ever-present emotional resonance. It is no accident that you will feel sympathy for the trio and their plight, despite their occasionally bloodthirsty ways.

With all of this death and destruction, and any pauses in the action reserved for a timely tug at the heart-strings, it’s little surprise that moments of levity are scarce in the book – although 3’s delivery method of an explosive comes to mind as one darkly amusing example. If we had to mention a negative, it would be the length of the story. Although, as we mentioned earlier, the book’s fleeting nature is necessary to keep up the pace of what is, in essence, one long chase scene, we cannot help but feel we would have liked to spend more time with such compelling characters.

WE3 is a rarity in graphic novels – concise enough to read through once in a single lunchtime, but good enough to return to time and time again.

Recommended: Invincible

Ongoing Series. Collections available from Amazon(US) or Amazon(UK)

Publisher: Image

Writer: Robert Kirkman

Artist: Cory Walker, Ryan Ottley

 

 

One problem with the big superhero books is that nothing ever really changes, or if it does, the alterations are not usually long-lasting. Characters are often trapped in an ageless cycle of retold storylines, designed primarily to preserve, rather than advance, the status quo. Not Invincible. This is a superhero book that shows how developing superpowers needn’t be the end of a character’s development.

Mark Grayson is Kirkman’s Peter Parker – a teenage everyman whose life is turned upside-down when he suddenly gets superpowers. Mark’s radioactive spider, though, is the legacy of his father, Omni-Man, moustachioed interloper from the planet Viltrum and current-best defender of the Earth. Unlike Parker, Grayson immediately embraces the powers he has been waiting for since first learning of his father’s dual identity, and he rushes headlong into the role of hero as his very own alter-ego, Invincible.

Much like Spider-Man, Mark has to balance his ordinary life with his new crime-fighting existence and, not surprisingly, things don’t go entirely according to plan. Matters are further complicated when Mark runs into junior vigilante group, the Teen Team, and one member in particular, the delectable Atom Eve, catches his eye. Eve, it turns out, attends Mark’s school and their shared superheroic experiences mean the two quickly become close. But Eve is already dating fellow Teen Teamer, Rex Plode, and so begins another required element of the superhero soap opera – the messy relationship.

What raises Invincible above any number of comics that have tried and failed to challenge DC and Marvel’s domination of the superhero genre by imitating their tropes is what Kirkman is prepared to put his characters through. Living, and indeed surviving, in the Invincible universe is no easy task. But a willingness to kill off his significant players is perhaps Kirkman’s least-cruel trick. His insistence on a progressive timeline means that heroes, villains and supporting cast alike must live with the consequences of their, and each other’s, actions. And mistakes aren’t easily forgiven or forgotten.

The progressive timeline approach also means that the characters are not frozen in time. They age and they change and, as a result, their relationships are constantly fluctuating. This creates a living, breathing world where readers’ loyalties and preferences can, and almost certainly will, switch. It makes for a far more engaging reading experience.

By the eleventh issue, or the third trade paperback, the book has completely turned on its head and Invincible’s world has been thrown into utter turmoil. And, as with all other dramatic developments in the comic, this represents a long-lasting change to the status quo – one that can’t be ignored or undone.

Kirkman is clearly having fun with this comic, simultaneously embracing and mocking various characteristics of standard superhero fare. Names like Dupli-Kate, for a multiplying heroine, or the already-mentioned Rex-Plode, for a hero who can charge objects with explosive energy, show that the writer’s tongue is firmly in-cheek at times. But anyone dropping their guard to enjoy this lighter aspect of the book is just leaving themselves open to a seemingly unending series of darker and darker sucker punches. By the time you reach issue 80, you will be so traumatised by the creator’s continued tormenting of your beloved characters, that you may just find yourself looking back nostalgically at the comparatively mild revelation that gives issue 11 its wow moment. On the other hand, you’ll enjoy every page, you sicko!