Writer: Warren Ellis
Artist: Juan Jose Ryp
Publisher: Avatar Comics
Price: $0.99
Eight pages. It’s amazing just how much is accomplished with them in this brief prologue issue. It sets up the main plot, introduces at least two of the main characters whilst mentioning others and gives a brief history of those two main characters. The rest of the issue is a brief column from Ellis that discusses the story, plus preview material for the next couple of issues.
The central concept behind Black Summer is what happens if someone with sufficient power decides that a head of state, in this case, the US President, is a criminal and must be executed for their crimes? What happens when a superhero not only decides this - but actually does it? How does the state respond? The answer Ellis gives is that a superhero could indeed decide to act thus and the state would respond with everything it had: Secret agents, military, media, politics – you name it, it’ll deploy it.
The issue begins with a split view: On the one hand we have an embittered, washed up hero who’s lost a leg cynically proclaiming he’s 30, at the same time another person is walking towards the White House. Our embittered hero recalls how he got here, a conversation with a man named John on how to enhance human abilities. He flicks on the news, where the reporters are discussing the exploits of a group of adventurers called the Seven Guns. It becomes clear our embittered hero was one of the Guns, as is the man we saw walking towards the White House. Then a new story breaks…
The new story is a man in a white uniform covered in blood walking into the press conference for the President. He introduces himself as John Horus, the same man who our embittered cynic knew; who is watching the proceedings with mounting horror as Horus announces he’s executed the President and his cabinet. He goes on to say why, that the President entered into an illegal war and oversaw abuses of the law, therefore he has executed a criminal. He then says he wants to see new elections and has only done what he has to save the country.
At this point it’s all hit the fan, as Tom is called by an acquaintance asking what they’re going to do, his response is there is no they, he isn’t interested in any team, all he cared about was cleaning up the city and that ended with him losing his girlfriend and his leg. He later gets a knock on a door to see a face he recognises, a man by the name of Frank…To be continued…
The amount of plot Ellis crams into these pages is impressive but Ryp’s art is every bit as good, every panel is packed with detail, even with 9 panels to a page it is clear and easy to read. He covers emotion, expression, action – everything is perfectly rendered. Credit also has to be given to colorist Mark Sweeney, who has delivered skilful work that shows off Ryp’s lines to full effect.
As for the central story, the concept of an individual or individuals deciding to oppose or even overthrow the government isn’t that new, but in this case the hero isn’t doing that, he’s executing a corrupt leader - and that’s all. This idea can be seen in Judge Dredd, where the Judges took the decision to arrest President Booth and set in place a system of instant justice. In effect this is what Horus dispensed to the President and cabinet.
This prologue issue does everything it needs to and does it well. The only negative is that it may be overlooked by people as unimportant, as it’s only an issue #0, when it’s actually setting up the story proper. I also suspect that given the price this will become hard to find, especially come August when the series begins. My advice to anyone after an excellent superhero story that goes beyond the conventions of the genre: Check this out now, if you don’t like it, it won’t have cost you much; on the other hand, if it’s to your liking you’ll be in on the ground floor of what could be a big hit.
Ben Crofts is resident in Essex, works in London and has found comics and philosophy mix surprisingly well.