Comics Bulletin logo
Search
  • Columns
    Random
    • Top 10 Non-Super Powered Heroes Of All Time

      The Firing Squad
      April 12, 2011
      Columns, Top 10
    Recent
    • The Full Run: Usagi Yojimbo – The Wanderer’s Road Part 2

      Daniel Gehen
      December 4, 2020
    • The Full Run: Usagi Yojimbo – The Wanderer’s Road Part 1

      Daniel Gehen
      October 30, 2020
    • Comictober 2020: DRACULA MOTHERF**KER

      Daniel Gehen
      October 27, 2020
    • What Looks Good
    • Comics Bulletin Soapbox
    • The Full Run
    • Leading Question
    • Top 10
    • The Long-Form
    • Jumping On
    • Comics in Color
    • Slouches Towards Comics
  • Big Two
    Random
    • Comictober 2018: Blackest Night, Superhero Fright

      The Firing Squad
      October 16, 2018
      Big Two, Columns, DC Comics
    Recent
    • 4.5

      DCeased: Dead Planet #7 Presents a Hopeful Future (Review)

      Daniel Gehen
      January 22, 2021
    • Retro Review: Detective Comics #826 Remains a Holiday Classic

      Daniel Gehen
      December 3, 2020
    • Stan Lee

      nguyen ly
      November 7, 2020
    • DC Comics
    • Big Two Reviews
    • Marvel Comics
  • Indie
    Random
    • 4.5

      Comictober 2019: Hillbilly Volume 1 TPB

      The Firing Squad
      October 14, 2019
      Indie, Reviews
    Recent
    • Review: The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Cartoonist

      Daniel Gehen
      December 14, 2020
    • The Full Run: Usagi Yojimbo – The Wanderer’s Road Part 2

      Daniel Gehen
      December 4, 2020
    • 4.5

      TMNT: The Last Ronin #1 Lives Up to the Hype (Review)

      Daniel Gehen
      October 29, 2020
    • Reviews
    • Archie Comics
    • Boom! Studios
    • Dark Horse
    • IDW
    • Image
    • Oni Press
    • Valiant
  • Reviews
    Random
    • 3.0

      Kirby Genesis #1 (Ray's review)

      The Firing Squad
      June 23, 2011
      Reviews
    Recent
    • 4.5

      DCeased: Dead Planet #7 Presents a Hopeful Future (Review)

      Daniel Gehen
      January 22, 2021
    • Review: The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Cartoonist

      Daniel Gehen
      December 14, 2020
    • Retro Review: Detective Comics #826 Remains a Holiday Classic

      Daniel Gehen
      December 3, 2020
    • Singles Going Steady
    • Slugfest
    • Manga
      • Reviews
    • Small Press
      • Reviews
      • ICYMI
      • Tiny Pages Made of Ashes
  • Interviews
    Random
    • Steve Gerber: Hard Labor

      The Firing Squad
      January 13, 2004
      Interviews
    Recent
    • Interview: Jon Davis-Hunt Talks SHADOWMAN

      Daniel Gehen
      June 8, 2020
    • Interview: Becky Cloonan talks DARK AGNES and Her Personal Influences

      Mike Nickells
      March 4, 2020
    • Simon Roy

      Interview: Simon Roy on His Inspirations and Collaborations on PROTECTOR

      Mike Nickells
      January 29, 2020
    • Audio Interview
    • Video Interview
  • Classic Comics
    Random
    • Steve Gerber's Son of Satan Pt. 10: "Will I Ever Make Sense of It?"

      The Firing Squad
      June 17, 2016
      Classic Comics, Classic Comics Cavalcade
    Recent
    • Countdown to the King: Marvel’s Godzilla

      Daniel Gehen
      May 29, 2019
    • Honoring A Legend: Fantagraphics To Resurrect Tomi Ungerer Classics

      Daniel Gehen
      February 15, 2019
    • Reliving the Craziest Decade in Comics History: An interview with Jason Sacks

      Mark Stack
      January 2, 2019
    • Classic Comics Cavalcade
    • Classic Interviews
  • News
    Random
    • Kickstarter Spotlight: Jack Katz - New Graphic Novel

      The Firing Squad
      February 10, 2015
      Kickstarter Spotlight, News
    Recent
    • 2020 Ringo Awards Winners Announced

      Daniel Gehen
      October 26, 2020
    • BAD IDEA Announces 2021 Publishing Slate

      Daniel Gehen
      September 29, 2020
    • A Full Replay of NCSFest 2020 is now Available

      Daniel Gehen
      September 15, 2020
    • Press Release
    • Kickstarter Spotlight
  • Books
    Random
    • Bernie Wrightson's 'Creepshow' is Back and Scarier Than Ever

      The Firing Squad
      May 16, 2017
      Books, Classic Comics Cavalcade, Reviews
    Recent
    • Collecting Profile: Disney Frozen

      CB Staff
      November 22, 2019
    • Collecting Profile: NFL Superpro

      CB Staff
      August 31, 2019
    • “THE BEST OF WITZEND” is a Wonderful Celebration of Artistic Freedom

      Daniel Gehen
      September 15, 2018
    • Review: ‘Machete Squad’ is a Disappointing Afghan Memoir

      Jason Sacks
      July 31, 2018
    • Review: ‘Out of Nothing’ is the Antidote to Our Sick Times

      Jason Sacks
      July 23, 2018
    • Review: ‘Bizarre Romance’ Shows Rough Edges in the Early Days of a New Marriage

      Jason Sacks
      July 10, 2018
What's New
  • Collecting Profile: If I win Powerball, I will buy Amazing Fantasy 15
  • DCeased: Dead Planet #7 Presents a Hopeful Future (Review)
  • Collecting Profile: Batwoman
  • Collecting Profile: Daredevil
  • Collecting Profile: Floronic Man
  • Review of Cheetah in Wonder Woman 1984
  • RSS Feed
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Google+
  • Contact Us
  • Write for us!
  • Visit Video Game Break!
Home
Reviews

SUNDAY SLUGFEST: Spaceman #1

The Firing Squad
October 30, 2011
Reviews, Slugfest
SUNDAY SLUGFEST: Spaceman #1
3.5Overall Score
Reader Rating: (0 Votes)

Orson is a humanoid being genetically engineered to go to Mars, but instead lives his life making ends meet and spending the rest on cybersex and futuredrugs. But when a popular actor/philanthropist couple loses one of their many children… ellipsis!

Nick Hanover:
Danny Djeljosevic:


Nick Hanover:

You’d think that the New 52 liberally borrowing from the tone and focus of Vertigo would put a little dent in the imprint’s future plans and yet, as 2011 is winding down, Vertigo as a line appears to be freshly inspired. New series are being launched (even as longstanding ones like Northlanders are unfortunately closing down) and their anthologies are getting better, with this month’s The Unexpected a contender for year’s best honors in that category. Interestingly enough, quite a lot of hope for the line is resting on Brian Azzarello and Eduardo Risso’s new series Spaceman, which was first previewed in The Unexpected’s middling predecessor from earlier this year, Strange Adventures.

At the heart of the high expectations for the series is its pedigree, with Azzarello and Risso the proud parents of one of Vertigo’s greatest hits, 100 Bullets. Spaceman at first glance appears to be a series that doesn’t quite have the same immediacy of 100 Bullets, which had a concept so great it could be sold to new readers with a single sentence plot description: people who have been wronged in some way are handed a gun with untraceable ammunition and all the evidence they need for revenge. That series eventually built up into a conspiracy tale of X-Files proportions but that hook was always there. Spaceman, however, seems to be a totally different beast, with the first issue not doing much to reveal the overall plan.

Instead, the first issue is devoted to setting up the overall tone of the series, establishing the world it’s set in and giving just enough of a plot to indicate direction will be forthcoming. It’s a big gamble, but since this is hard sci-fi, Azzarello and Risso aren’t wrong to assume that readers already intimate with the genre will be more patient with reveals. The trouble is that Vertigo as an imprint isn’t really associated with that kind of sci-fi, and it remains to be seen whether traditional Vertigo readers will be as willing to wait for crucial plot information.

Which is why Risso may just have the most important role in this series. Not to diminish Azzarello’s writing or inventive use of dialogue, but Risso’s pencils are what will make or break this series and in the first issue he handles that job exceptionally well. Spaceman retains trace elements of Risso’s unique style– the jagged lines and menacing shading, the urban decay– but this is quite a departure for the artist. Just as Azzarello’s plotting has picked up notable Philip K. Dick, William Gibson and Robert Heinlein influences (particularly in its The Moon is a Harsh Mistress dialogue), Risso is liberally borrowing from the likes of Paul Pope and Jamie Hewlett to deconstruct this pessimistic future.

That style goes a long way towards making an otherwise unassuming story work, especially since currently Azzarello seems to be content to let his own futurism happen with the dialogue and character origins rather than with real content. The gist of it all is that the protagonist, Orson, was genetically bred in a lab specifically to function as a perfect spaceman for Mars exploration. But that didn’t pan out, and now he’s living like a more urban version of Neuromancer‘s Henry Dorsett Case, hooked on virtual reality sex and chems. In the background, sarcastic future analogues of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie have created a reality show where kids compete to be adopted by them and one of the lead contenders has been kidnapped. Their paths inevitably cross.

It’s an unfortunately bland tale that pretty much could have been dropped directly into 100 Bullets with minimal editing and it’s largely a disservice to Risso’s art…but that’s assuming that the story is as it seems, and that it won’t morph in the same way that series did. Granted, Azzarello only has nine issues to make it happen instead of a hundred, but it seems likely that Azzarello has something up his sleeve. It’s quite possible that Azzarello is using the cliche, hard boiled plot to ease traditional Vertigo readers into a story that will only get more heady and truer to its sci-fi setting. Even so, it’s a little disappointing that Azzarello is so far sticking to easy satirical targets and overplayed story elements.

And yet, even if the story never really goes anywhere exciting, this issue more than justifies its dollar price tag due to Risso’s art, which is doubtlessly only going to get better as the series continues and he’s able to become more comfortable with the setting and tone. Vertigo has been offering these dollar first issues for a while, but this may be the perfect example of why they should be an industry standard– at $3.99 this comic would be the epitome of a letdown, but with $3 shaved off that cost, readers and critics alike can be more lenient. After all, if DC had done the same with their “all-new all-exciting!” Justice League I probably would given more than not a single fuck about that series.


When he’s not writing about the cape and spandex set, Nick Hanover is a book, film and music critic for Spectrum Culture and a staff writer for No Tofu Magazine. He also translates for “Partytime” Lukash’s Panel Panopticon.


Danny Djeljosevic:

It’s been a while since we heard about Spaceman — didn’t the Strange Adventures one-shot come out in June? — but in case you forgot about it, Vertigo’s released the inaugural issue of the new RissAzz joint for a single buck (or a penny less if you took to ComiXology like I did), so there’s no reason for any self-respecting comics reader not to pick it up. Sure, Brian Azzarello doing sci-fi might raise a few eyebrows the same way that Azz doing Superman did, but keep in mind that this is the writer creating his own futuristic world to play in rather than having to wrangle some stupid superhero property he doesn’t give a shit about.

The result is the kind of future-story that provides a mirror-image of our world, with the declining value of the dollar, cheap stimulation and a space program in shambles. Our protagonist, the would-be Mars explorer Orson, is every single American of any talent — college grad, high school star athlete, expert salesman — who must contend with bullshit drudgery instead of, y’know, putting
their abilities to good use. Meanwhile, orphans must compete on reality television to be adopted by celebs.

Spaceman, with all its future-grime posting as rubbish modern life, feels like Paul Pope was behind the mixing board on this record. Even the colors by Patricia Mulvihill and Giulia Brusco look like what comes up in the mind reading Pope’s black and white THB (if you can find them). You could probably read Spaceman back-to-back with 100% and write a very nice comparative essay (which we won’t be doing today).

Of course, this is still an Azzarello comic, and so there’s some police investigation (rubble-noir!) and the writer gives the lowly members of society (including Orson) a slurred dialect as if they learned English from radios with bad reception —

— which doesn’t have the staggering learning curve that Anthony Burgess’ “Nadsat” had, but can prove a stumbling block on first read. Azzarello loves to play with dialect, which can be awkward for some readers. It’s hard to judge because, well, are you having a problem because it’s not good or because reading it goes against the English you’re used to reading? Here Azz is trying to predict how casual language will evolve, which sensibly includes out-loud use of the phrase “LOL,” which I am guilty of doing as a flesh and blood adult male.

And with Risso drawing, you certainly get a cleaner style than Paul Pope’s noise-rock. His design of science horror spaceman Orson (サイエンスホラー宇宙人オーソン) is particularly smart, simultaneously bringing to mind astronaut test monkeys and Frankenstein. His layouts, meanwhile, are rarely separated by the usual white gutters, a style that never ceases to remind me of multiple web pages on a computer screen — probably a clever move for a story set in the future (and something I also loved about Frank Miller’s Dark Knight Strikes Again — cue hatemail). For a weird monster, there’s something inherently lovable about Orson.

The main plot of the book doesn’t really get started until the end of the issue, but this opening issue establishes a lot of necessary world-building while avoiding that feel of boring first chapter setup, thanks to things like proper good art and interesting characters. It feels like it’s gotten started, but it’s a nine-issue affair and this shit isn’t going to matter when it’s all collected.

I’m pretty stoked that Spaceman is off to a good start, because Vertigo was seeming like less and less of a vital piece of the comics puzzle (and oh, is it puzzling). After the transplanting of several of their characters back into the regular DC Universe, the impending loss of Northlanders and the crashing and burning of some of their more interesting titles (Air, Greek Street), I figured it’d be time to just reduce the line to Fables and Fables-related spinoffs. But with Spaceman I feel like maybe Vertigo isn’t down for the count.


Danny Djeljosevic is a comic book creator, award-winning filmmaker (assuming you have absolutely no follow-up questions), film/music critic for Spectrum Culture and Co-Managing Editor of Comics Bulletin. Follow him on Twitter at @djeljosevic or find him somewhere in San Diego, often wearing a hat. Read his newest comic, “Sgt. Death and his Metachromatic Men,” over at Champion City Comics.

 

Brian AzzarelloClem RobinsDanny DjeljosevicEduardo RissoGiulia BruscoPatricia MulvihillThe Firing Squad:Vertigo/DC

Share On:
Tweet
Production Diary Volume Two
Halloween Top Five Best Worst Horror Films

About The Author

The Firing Squad

Danny Djeljosevic is a comic book creator, award-winning filmmaker (assuming you have absolutely no follow-up questions), film/music critic for Spectrum Culture and Co-Managing Editor of Comics Bulletin. Follow him on Twitter at @djeljosevic or find him somewhere in San Diego, often wearing a hat. Read his comic with Mike Prezzato, "Sgt. Death and his Metachromatic Men," over at Champion City Comics and check out his other comics at his Tumblr, Sequential Fuckery. His webcomic The Ghost Engine, with artist Eric Zawadzki, updates twice a week.

Related Posts

  • What Looks Good for Quarantine Week 5

    Andrea Tessie, Daniel Gehen
    April 20, 2020
  • Azzarello and Llovet’s FAITHLESS Returns

    Daniel Gehen
    January 23, 2020

Latest Reviews

  • 4.5

    DCeased: Dead Planet #7 Presents a Hopeful Future (Review)

    Daniel Gehen
    January 22, 2021
  • Review: The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Cartoonist

    Daniel Gehen
    December 14, 2020
  • Retro Review: Detective Comics #826 Remains a Holiday Classic

    Daniel Gehen
    December 3, 2020
  • 4.5

    TMNT: The Last Ronin #1 Lives Up to the Hype (Review)

    Daniel Gehen
    October 29, 2020
  • 4.5

    Micro Review: Commanders in Crisis #1

    Jason Jeffords Jr.
    October 12, 2020
  • 3.0

    Review: GHOST WRITER Fights the Spectre of Unevenness

    Daniel Gehen
    September 3, 2020
  • 3.5

    Review: Strange Skies Over East Berlin

    Yavi Mohan
    August 11, 2020
  • DRAWING BLOOD: A Hyper-Stylized, Fictional Autobiography

    Ben Bishop, Brittany Peer, David Avallone, Drawing Blood, Kevin Eastman, Tomi Varga
    August 9, 2020
  • 3.0

    Alien: The Original Script #1 – This One’s For The Fans

    Jason Jeffords Jr.
    August 7, 2020
  • Singles Going Steady: Why? Lettering!

    Daniel Gehen
    July 28, 2020
RSSTwitterFacebookgoogleplusinstagramtumblr

Comics Bulletin is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for website owners to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com, audible.com, and any other website that may be affiliated with Amazon Service LLC Associates Program. As an Amazon Associate, Comics Bulletin earns from qualifying purchases.

All content on this site (c) 2018 The Respective Copyright Holders