Saturday, January 10, 2009

Brubaker's Standard of Excellence: Incognito #1


If you think about it, most of us don't know much about the people around us. Sure, you may see the same people in your neighbor, at work, or at school every day, but what do you really know about them? We only see what's on the surface, the details others want us to see. The real stuff, good and bad, is kept under wraps. We're all going through life incognito.

Incognito #1, published under Marvel's creator owned Icon label, is the start of a new series from the creative team of Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips. This is the same creative team behind the critically acclaimed series Criminal, so you know they work well together! This book has the same hard-edged, film noir qualities as Criminal, but with a heaping helping of pulp. Not the kind of pulp you might find floating around in your orange juice, but the kind that brought us the forefathers of modern super-heroes, characters like Doc Savage, the Shadow, and the Spider.

Series protagonist Zack Andersen used to be a science villain/terrorist known as Zack Overkill. Teamed up with his brother Xander Overkill, Zack was involved in hundreds of criminal escapades, resulting in loads of death, destruction, and property damage. When Xander died in action, the Overkill brothers' career came to an abrupt end, and Zack got off the hook by testifying against his boss, a powerful criminal mastermind charmingly known as The Black Death.

In the witness protection/rehabilitation program of Professor Zeppelin's Special Operations Service, Zack has spent three years being a "normal" person. He takes pills that inhibit his powers, he has to keep a boring office job, and live a boring normal life. Zack Overkill is forced to live Incognito. As unhappy and unsatisfied as Zack is, he tries to get used to his mundane existence. He does his job, takes his pills, and behaves himself. When it all starts to be more than he can take, he hits rock bottom and turns to drugs, figuring that if he just stays oblivious to the world around him, he can survive. What Zack hadn't counted on was that the drugs he ends up taking somehow allow his powers to return. Suddenly, it is a lot harder for Zack to keep pretending to be normal.

Brubaker's story lives up to the excellent standard fans have come to expect from the man behind Captain America, Daredevil, and Criminal. Realistic characters, complex plots, and a world that exists in shades of gray, rather than simple black and white, are all hallmarks of Brubaker's work that reappear in Incognito. Sean Phillips' art is a perfect complement to Brubaker's story, capturing the realism and the "noir-with-a hint-of-pulp" feel of Zack's world. There is always a hint of something lurking in the shadows.

Don't accept your fate as one of the boring masses! Be someone better, someone who reads awesome comics! Check out Incognito #1. This is a great start to a new series from a team with a stellar track record, and it comes with a money back guarantee all week at Four Color Fantasies. What more could you ask for than great art, an intriguing story, and a guy named Professor Zeppelin? Honestly, I can't think of anything.

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