By: Paul Cornell (writer), Ryan Kelly (art), Giulia Brusco (colors), Sal Cipriano (letters), Mark Doyle (associate editor) & Will Dennis (editor)
The Story: Are alien abductions real?
Review/Recap: So, this is the issue where Cornell starts to fiddle with the idea of whether alien abductions are real or whether something else is going on. The whole issue recalls some themes from The X-Files–before that show collapsed under its own weight. Remember when The X-Files started to make it vague whether aliens were actually abducting people, or whether it was just the government stealing people and it was convenient for the government to let us think it was aliens because then we wouldn’t blame the government? Well, this issue has a lot of that vibe to it.
It’s an interesting choice to make for Cornell. If he chose to make this story a straight-up alien invasion comic, readers would start demanding to SEE the aliens before too long. Eventually those series need to turn into a story about brave humans sneaking aboard alien landing craft to sabotage the mother ship, and that probably isn’t the sort of story that Cornell wants to share with us. On the other hand, playing with this true/false dynamic has it’s perils too. If the creators milk it for too long, you will end up with The X-Files and no one really knowing (or caring) what happened in the end. You can’t keep the readers in the dark forever, so the question to watch will be: when does Cornell pull the rip cord? When does he let us know what is really going on? And how does he manage that type of story in a comic market where you might have an outline for a 60-issue series, but where the market might suddenly force you to wrap it up after issue #25. Cornell is a very good writer and storyteller, so I’m curious how he manages these dynamics.
There are a few interesting things going on in this issue, but let’s start with the “therapist” for the Governor’s husband (still don’t know many of the characters’ names yet). Kinda a weird guy, huh? He seems to hypnotize his patients and then convince them that whatever happened was an alien abduction. The scenes where the therapist is really leaning in there and planting suggestions in the husband’s head was very well done. So, who is this dude? Is he some hack psychiatrist with a hard-on for aliens? Or is he someone planted by the government to convince “abductees” that it was really the aliens?
Professor Kidd is also a neat character. He’s the one who keeps seeing visions of the Pioneer Couple (the naked folks from the gold record attached to the Pioneer 10/11 spacecraft). Cornell has clearly spent some time around university faculty members because he really nails the duality of that personality. Faculty members come in all shapes an sizes, but it is startling to see how quickly they transform from some weird dude who may be talking to the toilet bowl into a commanding presence who is the world expert on their field of study. One second, you’re thinking, “My god! How does this man remember to brush his teeth in the morning? He is so fucking weird.” and then 2 minutes later, you marvel at the knowledge spewing forth.
I really enjoyed the brief introduction of a kinda watchdog group. Unlike The X-Files‘ Lone Gunmen, this seems like a fairly professional group of folks. I guess we don’t get into their credentials, but they seems like a group with advanced degrees and access to stuff. They also seem to have open minds about the nature of the weirdness: is it aliens or is it something else? They just know that it is unexplained. One does wonder how they enforce their confidentiality agreements though.
This was the issue where Ryan Kelly’s art really started clicking for me. I’ve always been a huge fan of his, but Saucer Country was a big departure from the cityscapes of NYC and abundant young women that made me love his linework. Saucer Country is also colored, which is a new thing. I’m not sure if it’s just taken me three issues to get used to seeing Kelly’s inks with color OR if he and the colorist are figuring it out, but it looks a lot more solid. All in all, we’ve got some really strong linework now, good (but not overdone) darks and nice flat-ish colors.
Conclusion: Not the most eventful, but it’s still a quality “advance the story” issue. Lots of series fumble the ball on the middle issue of a story arc, but that didn’t happen here.
Grade: B
– Dean Stell
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