Back Into Comics: Vertigo's AIR vol. 1 and UNKNOWN SOLDIER vol. 1

I hadn't purchased any comics in over a year and a half when I walked into Vancouver's preeminent comic shop Golden Age Collectibles last Friday. It wasn't financially feasible to buy comics anymore for my year in Victoria, but with those days done, I decided to finally jump back in and pick a couple random books up. I went in with two things in mind: 1) I didn't want anything superhero-related, and 2) Vertigo was a brand I trusted.

DC comics' Vertigo Comics imprint has the distinction of being "the HBO of comics" because they produce mature, challenging, finite series for the smart set. One of these days I'll write about Vertigo's 2006/2007 new wave of titles, where they were launching a new, great series every month. Sadly, very few of those series were successful, and, as of 2009, I can count only two that are still around (DMZ and Scalped). Even sadder? In the wake of those unsuccessful launches Vertigo seems to be putting out more and more fantasy- and genre-related books, as opposed to the crime and political and more-HBO-styled stuff they were flirting with (I mean, when I look at the line now I wonder where the American Virgin and The Exterminator-like books are.) The fantasy genre is fine if that's what you're into, but it's not what I read Vertigo for and they don't fuel as many recommend-it-to-a-person-who-doesn't-read-comics type books.

So I picked up two titles that launched a little after I stopped reading comics: Air: Letters From Lost Countries (vol. 1) and Unknown Soldier: Haunted House (vol. 1).

Air: Letters From Lost Countries (vol. 1)
Air had my interest for the first couple of issues. The art was passable, though very inconsistent, and the premise piqued my curiosity, with a setting and a world that was different from anything I'd read before. Blythe, a flight attendant with acrophobia is, in the first issue, approached by two different parties: Tall, dark, and handsome Zayne, whose accent and appearance change every time she sees him, and who appears very much like a terrorist, and the Etesian Front, a group dedicated to "taking the skies back from terror," and who appear very much like the good guys. And, wouldn't you know, our initial assumptions are wrong as Zayne turns out to be the good guy (and, eventually, Blythe's lover) and the Etesian Front turn out to be the bad guys who, in the first story, attempt to steal the plane Blythe is working on.

I liked the first issue well enough, but the more the series began to leave planet Earth and deal with cities in the sky and snake-bird creatures, the less interested I grew. Yup, the book turned out to one of Vertigo's fantasy titles. And it completely derailed for me by the book's final, fifth chapter, with Blythe becoming more of an absurd action-star character and with Aztec-powered flying machines, cities in the sky with mercenary gypsies, and the revelation that Blythe and all her flight attendant co-workers are "hyperpracts" (Kind of psychic pilots of the future? I think? I don't know, I really stopped caring). The grounded, post-9/11 acrophobic-flight-attendant world that initially drew me in seemed all but abandoned for fantastic adventures in alternate worlds and sky-cities.

My verdict: it's just not for me. It's the kind of book Vertigo seems to be producing more and more of these days.

Unknown Soldier: Haunted House (vol. 1)
Now this is what I look for in a Vertigo book. I hadn't heard much about this series but the cover blurbs made it sound pretty promising ("A comic that genuinely matters," "Immensely brave, intelligent, and ruthless," "Nothing else like it on the stands," "...the most special new comic series I've ever encountered," etc. Just to differentiate, the blurbs on the Air book were similarly complimentary but comparatively passive: "...interesting," "I've enjoyed it," etc.). The book has even been profiled in the New York Times.

It's about Dr. Lwanga Moses, an Ivy League-educated doctor who returns to his homeland of war-torn Northern Uganda in 2002. He and his wife Sera, also a doctor, begin the story helping out in a camp in the Northwest area. But, as the book jacket says, "within the heart of this healer mysteriously erupts an unstoppable killing machine." A violent encounter brings out a mysterious soldier-like voice that guides and goads him into violent encounters.

This series is brutal and provocative. The ending of the first issue, just as an example, made me sit up in shock, first with a brutal act of self-defense on Moses' part and then with what he does to himself afterwards. But other than just being violent, it's an engrossing exploration of the Uganda of that period of time, with child soldiers and plot points like nuns making deals with the rebels. One hard question the series poses concerns the ethics of answering violence with violence. As the sixth part of this collection ends with Moses about to embark on a mission to kill the leader of the Lord's Resistance Army, we're incredibly uncomfortable and not quite sure how righteous he and his mission are.

And on top of the the great writing, the European-style art is beautiful (reminding me of 80's-era Frank Miller) and the briefly-seen supporting characters are all interesting (including Margaret Wells, an Angelina Jolie-like celebrity crusader, and Jack Lee Howl, a grizzled, rogue CIA agent). I look forward to finding out more about all of these characters and seeing how this story develops.

And yup, I would recommend this book to someone who doesn't read comics.

Where to go from here?
I think I want to catch back up with DMZ and Scalped, get the last few volumes that have come out. And Greek Street looks interesting. And maybe soon I'll start venturing outside of Vertigo...