Writers
Alex Amado and Sharon Cho have crafted a story that combines
several genres of story, including mystery, gothic, and
horror, all around the character called Nobody. Actually,
the character goes by the name Jessica Drake (sounds like
Spiderwoman, no?) and she is a paranormal investigator in
a world where demons continually break through to the human
world, through summoning or other means, and regular human
beings dabble in black magic. She is also possessed of the
unique ability to change her facial features at will, to
match whomever she needs to be. She’s the ultimate
disguise artist.
On the
job one night, Jessica is asked to break up a demonic ritual
and when she fails to rescue the human sacrifice, she takes
out those who had done the sacrificing, preventing the summoning
of a major demonic presence. Now that presence seems to
be haunting Jessica, all while a fresh string of murders
brings her back to her old home of New Orleans, in order
to attempt to stop a serial killer taking young children’s
lives. Jessica has no idea that every step she takes is
marked, watched, and moved by a more malevolent being than
she has ever dealt with before and she has no idea that
she may actually be the next victim.
Amado
and Cho’s story is rather good and their writing style
and dialogue ring true and interests the reader, but there
are problems with the narrative, most of which stem from
the overall sense that this comic is meant to be set-up
for another story. While we get a feel for the character’s
personality through the narration and the dialogue, we know
very little about the character’s past.
What
is strange is that Amado and Cho place small bits of backstory
into the text, revealing in bits and increments Jessica’s
past but never giving a full and satisfactory history of
the character or the Nobodys, a seemingly mystical sect
of supernatural humans. In a serial comic, this would be
great because the reader would have future issues in which
these stories could be told, but this is the only collection
of Nobody stories, with no seeming future for them.
The series was originally published by Oni Press, and did
not do overly well before AiT/PlaNETLar picked up the trade
collection for publishing. It’s been through two printings
and there’s no seeming buzz from these creators to
put out a sequel. This is a problem because the book seems
written in anticipation of future stories; the hints regarding
Jessica’s past but no hard truths, the establishment
of a truly malicious antagonist with no actual confrontation
with the character, and the overall loss of the story arc
to these future suggestions.
When
you read this graphic novel, you almost want to get done
with the actual story arc and skip ahead to the confrontation
between Jessica and the demonic hordes, or even to the explanation
of the history of Nobody. The actual plot becomes incidental
to the questions raised, and left unanswered, by the narrative,
which I would applaud in a book with a future, but not in
a done-in-one collection. The fact that Amado and Cho do
so well keeping the story together with all of these problems
shows their talent, but they’ve lost their story in
their zeal to give the reader too much information too soon,
and with no answers to the questions they raise.
The
art by Charlie Adlard is also pretty well done, though not
helped by the narrative. His style is black and white, heavy
on the inks and with a scratchy quality that suggests Frank
Miller influences. His lines are soft when dealing with
facial features and anatomical work, making his characters
look real enough and he has an eye for panel placement,
using traditional, long, and square panels intermittent
when it suits the tone. He is also quite good at pacing
the story and using his panels to control the flow of time.
There are times when his transitions are too quick; I’m
reminded of one scene where we go from a bathroom scene
to “A Week Later,” on top of a building that
also happens to be a dream sequence. It was jarring and
a little too quick. His character designs are fine, but
he excels at illustrative suggestion with one of his characters,
whose name will not be revealed in order to save those who
read it from spoilage, but look at the visual suggestion
of the guys surrounded with flies and you’ll understand
how it fits the character to a tee.
Nobody
has all the makings of a damn good comic, and I’ve
heard rumors that it has been looked at once or twice for
television production, but the story they’re not telling,
but hinting at, seems much more interesting. Consequently,
the reader is bored by the story he or she is reading in
comparison to the one he or she could be reading. It’s
an accidental sabotaging of their narrative, and Amado and
Cho should really think about writing a sequel, because
I’m sure another $12.95 would not be much to ask for
what promises to be a better comic. This comic is still
good and enjoyable to read to an extent, but the story we
could be reading could be great.