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Tuesday, September 06, 2005
Adam Strange: Planet Heist
A while ago I invoked Adam Strange as a title I was enjoying but feared seeing dragged down into crossover chaos. I enjoyed the first issue a lot but decided to wait for the trade paperback because of my then financial state. I picked up the trade over the weekend and was pleased to find out the good out weighed the bad on this title, even though there was one big disappointment hanging over it after I finished reading the series.
The real entertainment from this mini-series is seeing Andy Diggle and Pascal Ferry combine their respective talents to tell a cosmic adventure story that really goes for fun and excitement. Personally, I’ve always been interested when superhero books go heavy into sci-fi settings, including the original Adam Strange stories by Gardner Fox and Carmine Infantino. I was glad to see Diggle and Ferry continue this character’s legacy.
The story is a simple enough set-up for a lot of sci-fi adventure. Adam Strange is a man of two worlds, Rann and Earth. He goes between the two with the Zeta Beam technology, which keeps sending him two and from the planets. Then there seemed a time when Adam could live on Rann forever with his wife and daughter. Unfortunately for Adam it seems that the planet Rann is destroyed by a supernova. Adam soon learns some info from two alien bounty hunters out to get him that leads him to believe there might be more to Rann’s disappearance. Adam sets out to find some answers about his adopted home world.
Ferry’s art, in collaboration with the wonderful coloring job by Dave McCaig, is pleasing right from the start. His figures create a strong presence within the page. The designs are always clear and he can use just the right amount of lines to make something seem detailed without becoming too busy.
That pays off very nicely because within the very first issue Diggle comes up with a chase involving alien bounty hunters and jetpacks that sets the tone for the series. Ferry can create a lot of kinetic energy with his drawings and his panel structure again makes the most of simplicity. Everything seems to be drawn so confidently and precise that all the actions have a lot of impact. Look at that sequence where Adam blasts his way out of the Durlan Spy and you’ll see how effective Ferry’s use of motion, anatomy and imagination is.
Thankfully Diggle is a writer that can come up with these sequences that Ferry illustrates so wonderfully. Best of all his writing doesn’t get in the way of the action, either. The first issue’s jetpack chase has many captions from Adam’s inner monologue, a typical device used these days. But unlike other books I’ve read these captions are not filled with too much exposition or explanation of the character’s feelings that the read feels like it’s slowed down and the excitement is sucked out. Diggle has read enough Frank Miller to know how to how to pack just the right amount of punch into the first person narrative. It doesn’t feel as hard boiled as Miller’s work, which would be out of place in this story, but it continues a grand tradition starting with Stan Lee, Steve Englehart, Miller and others where captions help propel the pace of a book.
Planet Heist is a story that benefits from the wham-bam style Diggle and Ferry make great use of. While it might seem obvious to just do a DC version of Star Wars or try to recreate some of the previous comic book cosmic storylines, this book feels like it reaches back even farther. Going through the issues of Planet Heist a formula seems to be emerging of a new character and/or discovery attaching itself to the plot Adam finds himself in and then having the issue end on a cliffhanger so that the reader will have to pick up the next book just to see what happens next. It seems like something derived from the film serials of Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon as well as the adventure strips that spawned them both. Except the aesthetic this book employs seems to include European genre graphic novels, due to McCaig’s coloring that blends soft colors so well, and the superheroics of the DC Universe, complete with supporting characters from previous books. With Planet Heist Diggle and Ferry brings the spirit of those adventure strips to the modern age of superhero comic books with satisfying results.
Fear not about the introduction of other DC characters. I myself has never read anything with the Darkstars or L.E.G.I.O.N. in it and only know The Omega Men from a New Teen Titans Annual I barley remember. This lack of knowledge about the heavens of the DCU was not a hindrance, as reading interviews and seeing Diggel speak I’ve found that he’s a writer not unlike Garth Ennis. They both write for DC and Marvel yet have little interest in the sprawling continuities of either of the two companies. Diggle makes it real easy to read the story by introducing the characters with just as much info as the reader needs to get along with the story. The Omega Men themselves are interesting characters in Diggle’s hands and add a lot to the story as the rag-tag crew Adam hooks up with. Lead Omega Tigorr has a speech pattern that reminded me a bit of The Ever-Lovin’ Blue-Eyed Thing. He makes a fine sidekick in Strange’s quest to return to Rann. Vril Dox’s dialogue and role is one that feels like the icy villain whose personality is so deliciously devious that one can’t help but to love him. He’s someone that would be played by Jeremy Irons or Ian McKellan if this were a movie. Other characters don’t fare so well. I still don’t know much about the Darkstars other than they were introduced to die a hero’s death but that will bring us to the problematic ending to this boo, which I’ll get to later.
The introduction of all types of alien bad guys and good guys also gives Ferry another way to showcase his talents. There are many times in the book where half the page will be devoted to one panel spotlighting some new otherworldly creation. Ferry’s designs (or re-designs, I have trouble keeping track of what are new creations or not) of these characters or settings are a fine example of creating a type of elegance for the weird and grotesque. Ferry’s skill is just as strong when his imagination is on overdrive and it makes this space adventure just that much more alive.
There are flaws in the book like when the action scenes aren’t as exciting as that first one (although there are no bad action scenes) and when the exposition from Rann master scientist Sardath sounds like less compelling versions of Christopher Lloyd’s explanation scenes in Back to the Future Part II but those are easy to forgive. What’s less easy to let go is the fact that the last issue of the book features characters acting strangely (no pun intended) like Adam himself and the inexplicable introduction and then killing off of the Darkstars (Jog goes over it pretty well over here). It all leads up to the book ending on yet another cliffhanger, which wouldn’t be so bad if it led to another Adam Strange series by Diggle and Ferry but instead leads into another series with a different creative team which itself leads into another series with a different creative team. You can gather from various on-line interviews that this was not what was planned for the series (Ferry says in July of 2004 that “‘Adam’ is closer to what I would want to do in my future; concrete projects with one start and one very defined end.” And Diggle said after the series was over that “Adam Strange taught me to always agree to the ending before you start. Having the goalposts move mid-game is never a good idea.”). It taints what is overall a really impressive series. Perhaps there will be an Adam Strange series that will feature these creators but I even then it’s hard to get as excited about it as I could be.
Planet Heist is still a great read 90% of the time. Ferry has now become an artist whose name is one to seek after seeing what he can accomplish here. I think that the majority of this book is something more superhero creators should strive for and less so the very last bit.
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