June 15th, 2009 Graig
The Unknown #2
Cat Allingham is the world’s greatest private detective. It would seem there’s not a single mystery she can’t solve, from Stonehenge to the Black Dahlia, she’s uncovered the clues and conquered the impossible. Though now suffering from a terminal brain tumor, she can’t stop working, and her latest case has a dual purpose. At a high-tech research facility, sibling scientists were conducting an experiment to measure the weight of a soul, in efforts to prove its existence. In the process, their experiment backfired, their lab destroyed and their high tech weight-chamber missing. Cat’s tumor is giving her hallucinations, so she’s enlisted the burly, keen-eyed Doyle as her protege, and perhaps as a little protection as well. This issue, In their process of uncovering the truth behind one of the two mysteries, they encounter an unbelievable creature that would provide them another mystery if they weren’t running for their lives. Writer Mark Waid presents The Unknown as a full-on adventure story, with the requisite cheeky dialogue and eccentric characters. He’s joined by Dutch artist Minck Oosterveer, providing a great visual flair for the books more fantastical elements, while grounding the characters with distinctive, emotive faces. His figure work has a slightly cartoonish feel, giving the comic a sense of detachment from reality, but he counters that with some great set and background detail. His heavy shading is masterful, reminiscent of Eduardo Rizzo’s and Fellipe Martins fills in the blanks with some phenomenal color work. The second issue takes a far more adventurous turn than the first issue prepares the reader for, so it’s surprising, however, even more delightful to read.
Unthinkable #2
This is what you call “high-concept”. Alan Ripley is a best-selling novelist in the 1990’s known for his stories about terrorism foiled by his he-man protagonist, is post-9-11 asked by a government representative to join a think-tank with a few other pundit-types, speculators of terrorist strategies. Years after the group is disbanded, suddenly Ripley’s predictions start coming true. The first issue expertly spanned a 10-year period of Ripley’s life, brilliantly paced, up to the point where Ripley takes his knowledge to the feds, only to find they’re not interested, or so they say. This second issue leads then to “what does he do?” Does he wait for another attack to be proven right? Or does he reassemble the think-tank and try to figure out a way to prevent what might happen next. This leads to some highly improbably situations for Ripley and company, where he winds up destroying an oil tanker and getting arrested, all the while a dizzying array of conspiracy theories are bandied about and the crosses, double-crosses, and who’s really who are revealed at a manic pace. What’s really going on? I have no idea. Writer Mark Sable goes from doling out gobs of information with expert pacing in the first issue to near nonsensicalness in issue two. So much happens in this second issue, so much is revealed and so many ideas are presented, it’s rather audacious, and almost impressive if it weren’t so confounding. Julian Totino Tedesco must be given an exceptional amount of credit for even venturing to try and illustrate all the madcap shenanigans, and if it weren’t for his incredible visual presentation, I’d have given up. It should be said, though, that Unthinkable is a scary-as-hell book, and it’s evident that Sable understands how his crackpot theories, even when taken only mildly seriously, as they are here in this kitchen-sink action-adventure-espionage-horror-drama, can stimulate the imagination in absolutely crazy ways. It’s by no means a dumb book, it’s perhaps just a tad overachieving. But even still, I’m more than ready to tune in for more.
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