By Azzarello & Risso
Publisher: Vertigo
ISBN: 9781401242701
The superb creative team behind 100 Bullets return with Spaceman, a grim tale of life in the near future where the seas are rising, the coastal cities are flooded and the space programme is a distant memory.
The book follows Orson who, along with his brothers, were bioengineered by NASA to make the journeys in space that ordinary humans would struggle to make. They’re sturdier, more robust humans who look more like an over-sized ape ancestor rather than another step up the evolutionary ladder. The populace turned against NASA for its top-secret tinkering with the human genome which in turn brought about NASA's collapse, leaving Orson and his brothers to be split up and raised as orphans. Now an adult, Orson leads a secluded life fishing for scrap on the waters above a flooded city where he’s accepted by the very few only because he’s become familiar.
Through no fault of his own Orson ends up at the centre of a celebrity kidnapping after the kidnappers fall out with one another in the bloodiest of ways and he ends up rescuing the kidnapped child. Unfortunately his looks, intelligence and social standing mean he doesn’t go straight to the authorities which backfires when other parties learn of the young girl he has with him. This includes one of Orson’s more worldly-wise brothers who hires out his greater build and strength to brutal effect, and is now on a collision course with his sibling.
Like Brian Michael Bendis, Azzarello has a gift for writing dialogue, but while Bendis specialises in short, sharp, aggressive exchanges Azzarello is the master of street talk, lingo and colloquialisms. In Spaceman he’s taken that a step further by inventing a casual language of the future, and although it permeates almost every spoken word by the characters his skill at writing, and Risso’s at portraying the characters’ body language and mood of the scene, mean you’re presented with a fully realised, bold and gritty world that is easy to slip into and explore.
It’s a brilliantly original idea and wonderfully executed. The curious counter-reality story running within the story complements the main narrative creating a book that is both powerful and somewhat melancholy. Really good to see Risso’s work in print again too – easily one of the most interesting artists out there who seems able to turn his hand to anything Azzarello throws at him. Well worth hunting out some pennies to buy this one.
And if you liked that: You’ll love 100 Bullets
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