Cyclops’ story idea has a lot of potential and not just for a miniseries. What really makes this series stand out is that it’s able to glimpse at the future in a realistic way. The book was originally published in France 13 years ago, and sadly, its ridiculous, based-on-reality-shows 2054 setting is an accurate description of what this world is becoming.
Though some backgrounds and some crammed panels felt rushed with little detail, I really enjoyed the overall look and feel that Jacamon gives to this mini. He and Matz made a great team on this one.
Another thing I enjoyed was Archaia’s book presentation. Even just with the credits page, I had the impression that I was watching a CNN live feed from some distant war, while reading an excerpt of the main hero’s exploits. Sure, maybe the book’s lettering wasn’t the best I’ve seen, but the fact that the story had already grabbed me by the time I noticed made me overlook this minor detail.
As readers know by now, Doug Pistoia is part of a special task force unit sent to troubled countries, where war has erupted or is about to erupt. But the special nature of this Multicorps unit is shown really fast, as its components have live interviews, and a 24-hour a day live feed as long as they are on the battlefield.
Multicorps wants to create a hero, and then have him show off in front of the cameras. Whether or not their tactical decisions on how to resolve a conflict are humanitarian and law-abiding is an issue that none of the big fish in the company care about. All they care about is promoting Doug and following him each day, even when he is off-duty (an idea that showed up a year later in the movie EdTV), creating a logical rift in his relationship.
In these days — where the US subcontracts private security companies to act in international war scenarios, where every TV channel has the highest ratings when airing a reality show, where wars are created because oil is needed, where it becomes more and more difficult to determine who the good guys and the bad guys are, where the interests of multinationals run the world, where the world’s color is gray — maybe we need a big dose of true heroism. Maybe we need someone with the change of conscience that Doug Pistoia starts feeling in this issue.
And as we realize that, though Cyclops may seem exaggerated at some points, this world of the year 2054 is not so different from the one we live in. So we have to wonder: are the heroes we have the real deal, or just a product for the masses, easy on the eye? That looks like a difficult question, one I certainly don’t have the answer for.
Do you?