Better with every read...After being snowbound for several days my wife and I decided it was time to shovel the walk, clear a path to the car, remove the white stuff covering it's windows and journey out into the world to resupply our dwindling larder. On the way home from said journey we stopped at the comic shop to resupply my reading stockpile in case the snows returned.
As I perused the well picked over remnants from the previous Wednesday I didn't find anything that particularly caught my eye. It saddens me that its so hard to pick up a comic book these days without finding myself somewhere in the midst of a major event crossover. If I spend twenty bucks for a stack of comics I'd like to get a complete story arc in there somewhere. Realizing such was not going to be the case on this day I moved on to the trade paperbacks. After dismissing any number of lackluster offerings I ran across the TPB for Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips mini-series, Incognito.
Incognito was one of my favorite reads in 2009. From beginning to end it pulled me in and kept me coming back for more with a gritty storyline and a fascinating cast of characters. Its one of those pieces I can share with friends and say, "This is why I read comic books." and not have to hang my head in embarrassment. This was a trade paperback that met my two biggest requirements when considering the worth of a TPB purchase, it collected a truly great story arc and would keep the original comic books out of the hands of my two year old and comic challenged friends. I bought it...
Later that evening I sat down in my favorite reading chair and started reading the book. I was tired from a long day of entertaining a two year old and hours of snow removal so I figured I'd only read a part or two and then go to bed. The next thing I knew I was turning the last page and wishing there was another book waiting for me so I could continue reading on. I was really caught by surprise. Not so much by the fact that I enjoyed the story, after all I'd already read the series once before so the element of original surprise was no longer a factor. It was something more and I soon began leafing back through the book breaking down the characters and the milieu that framed them and their conflicts.
First off the story begins in "Anytown" U.S.A.. Not a small rural farm community in the middle of Tumbleweed, Arizona or a major metropolitan city Like New York, New York. Incognito started off in a city a lot like the one I live in, Dayton, Ohio. Which may not be the worst place to live in America, but it certainly goads one on lackluster days to look for bigger and greener pastures in which to prove one's mettle. I understood the town where Ed Brubaker began his tale. I'd grown up in it. It wasn't like trying to identify with a place where Ma and pa worked the fields and apple pies cooled on window sills. This origin story was outdated when I was a kid...
Even more than the location of the story it is historical context that pulls me into the tale. This is not a post world war environment where the threat of the red menace threatens to destroy every thing good and decent in the world including our very own democracy. It is not about the danger of nuclear energy and the bomb. Incognito is set in aworld where the real battle is for economic superiority and the power of wealth. Genetic engineering, science and technology are the agents of change, not the accidental vagaries of atomic explosions, radioactive insect bites or serums. I can relate to the milieu because the issues in it are the ones I watch on television news programs almost every night.
Zack Overkill used to enjoy a high-powered career until the organization decided it was time to phase him out and replace him with new blood. Suddenly finding himself working a meaningless dead end job far beneath his skill level left him feeling unfulfilled and depressed. Now why does that seem so familiar to me? Oh yeah, its a lot like my own since the great recession began. I understand Zack Overkill. He's not the sharpest tool in the box perhaps, but Zack once knew a life that made him feel vital and alive. Hey, I know this guy and that's when it dawned on me...
Incognito is such a good story because it is so easy to relate to. It doesn't happen in some far flung galaxy or some inter-dimensional parallel universe. It happens where I live and work, right here in Anytown U.S.A.. It doesn't involve high tech body armor sporting the latest in micro-miniaturized weaponry. It isn't about teams of super-powered beings invulnerable to almost every known threat in the known universe. It isn't about living in luxurious secret headquarters or private schools. Its a story about a schmuck in a dead end job who dreams of bygone glory days. I relate to this guy.
If the truth be known, I just don't care about the cosmic coming and goings of Hulks, Avengers, Lanterns, Skrulls or Norman Osborn's war on Asgard. Their cowboy and Indian stories have nothing in common with my daily struggles. It is simply too hard to suspend my system of disbelief long enough to tolerate the absurd foundations of their stories let alone accept them. They are no longer from or of my world. They are aliens and strangers to me and the further they journey from my world the more difficult it is for me to justify spending my hard earned money on the many, many books they expect me to buy just to watch their sagas unfold.
Ed Brubaker brings it all back down to Earth. He simplifies things. His stories are our stories and not the caped and cowled ones of the super-powered beings who have nothing in common with us. Times are tough in our world and they're tough in the stories of rough and tumble characters like Zack Overkill. Like him the most important thing in our days is survival. Its a story I relate to and somehow Ed manages to tell it in six parts instead of twenty-six parts like some other writers. I like that...
As I perused the well picked over remnants from the previous Wednesday I didn't find anything that particularly caught my eye. It saddens me that its so hard to pick up a comic book these days without finding myself somewhere in the midst of a major event crossover. If I spend twenty bucks for a stack of comics I'd like to get a complete story arc in there somewhere. Realizing such was not going to be the case on this day I moved on to the trade paperbacks. After dismissing any number of lackluster offerings I ran across the TPB for Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips mini-series, Incognito.
Incognito was one of my favorite reads in 2009. From beginning to end it pulled me in and kept me coming back for more with a gritty storyline and a fascinating cast of characters. Its one of those pieces I can share with friends and say, "This is why I read comic books." and not have to hang my head in embarrassment. This was a trade paperback that met my two biggest requirements when considering the worth of a TPB purchase, it collected a truly great story arc and would keep the original comic books out of the hands of my two year old and comic challenged friends. I bought it...
Later that evening I sat down in my favorite reading chair and started reading the book. I was tired from a long day of entertaining a two year old and hours of snow removal so I figured I'd only read a part or two and then go to bed. The next thing I knew I was turning the last page and wishing there was another book waiting for me so I could continue reading on. I was really caught by surprise. Not so much by the fact that I enjoyed the story, after all I'd already read the series once before so the element of original surprise was no longer a factor. It was something more and I soon began leafing back through the book breaking down the characters and the milieu that framed them and their conflicts.
First off the story begins in "Anytown" U.S.A.. Not a small rural farm community in the middle of Tumbleweed, Arizona or a major metropolitan city Like New York, New York. Incognito started off in a city a lot like the one I live in, Dayton, Ohio. Which may not be the worst place to live in America, but it certainly goads one on lackluster days to look for bigger and greener pastures in which to prove one's mettle. I understood the town where Ed Brubaker began his tale. I'd grown up in it. It wasn't like trying to identify with a place where Ma and pa worked the fields and apple pies cooled on window sills. This origin story was outdated when I was a kid...
Even more than the location of the story it is historical context that pulls me into the tale. This is not a post world war environment where the threat of the red menace threatens to destroy every thing good and decent in the world including our very own democracy. It is not about the danger of nuclear energy and the bomb. Incognito is set in aworld where the real battle is for economic superiority and the power of wealth. Genetic engineering, science and technology are the agents of change, not the accidental vagaries of atomic explosions, radioactive insect bites or serums. I can relate to the milieu because the issues in it are the ones I watch on television news programs almost every night.
Zack Overkill used to enjoy a high-powered career until the organization decided it was time to phase him out and replace him with new blood. Suddenly finding himself working a meaningless dead end job far beneath his skill level left him feeling unfulfilled and depressed. Now why does that seem so familiar to me? Oh yeah, its a lot like my own since the great recession began. I understand Zack Overkill. He's not the sharpest tool in the box perhaps, but Zack once knew a life that made him feel vital and alive. Hey, I know this guy and that's when it dawned on me...
Incognito is such a good story because it is so easy to relate to. It doesn't happen in some far flung galaxy or some inter-dimensional parallel universe. It happens where I live and work, right here in Anytown U.S.A.. It doesn't involve high tech body armor sporting the latest in micro-miniaturized weaponry. It isn't about teams of super-powered beings invulnerable to almost every known threat in the known universe. It isn't about living in luxurious secret headquarters or private schools. Its a story about a schmuck in a dead end job who dreams of bygone glory days. I relate to this guy.
If the truth be known, I just don't care about the cosmic coming and goings of Hulks, Avengers, Lanterns, Skrulls or Norman Osborn's war on Asgard. Their cowboy and Indian stories have nothing in common with my daily struggles. It is simply too hard to suspend my system of disbelief long enough to tolerate the absurd foundations of their stories let alone accept them. They are no longer from or of my world. They are aliens and strangers to me and the further they journey from my world the more difficult it is for me to justify spending my hard earned money on the many, many books they expect me to buy just to watch their sagas unfold.
Ed Brubaker brings it all back down to Earth. He simplifies things. His stories are our stories and not the caped and cowled ones of the super-powered beings who have nothing in common with us. Times are tough in our world and they're tough in the stories of rough and tumble characters like Zack Overkill. Like him the most important thing in our days is survival. Its a story I relate to and somehow Ed manages to tell it in six parts instead of twenty-six parts like some other writers. I like that...
No comments:
Post a Comment
Hello fanboys and girls.
Gotta a little love you'd like share? Go right on ahead and feel free to lay it on me. (Even if it's the tough kind.)
Just remember, the only place anonymous comments ever land, is on the cutting room floor...