Wednesday, May 27, 2009

A Unique Story by Waid and Oosterveer: The Unknown


Everybody loves a mystery. Of course, some mysteries are more mysterious than others. Who was Jack the Ripper? Where do the socks that vanish in the dryer go? Why do people watch reality TV? All vexing questions, but none as mysterious as The Unknown! (Cue ominous organ music and maniacal laughter.)

Alright, The Unknown is actually Mark Waid's new 4 issue series from Boom! Studios, but it is pretty mysterious in its own right. The series stars Catherine "Cat" Allingham (Possibly named after mystery writer Margery Allingham?), America's Greatest Detective. Cat has a brain that always moves at full tilt, casually solving the mysteries that thwart the lesser minds of the police departments of the world. She doesn't have much patience for the slow pace the rest of us meander along at, so she can be a little abrasive at times. Oh, she also has 6 months to live, and seems to have a creepy spectre of death watching over her. Like you do.

After quickly solving another tedious case that is really beneath her notice, Cat runs into newly unemployed bouncer, and fan of her work, James Doyle (Named for Arthur Conan Doyle? Mr. Waid has been reading some mysteries, hasn't he?). Doyle is a hulking mass of muscle, but he also has a knack for reading people and an eye for details. The perfect sidekick for the detective on the go!

Cat and Doyle hop on a jet to Europe, where we get to the real puzzle, one that even Cat may not be able to solve. The Faderbauer brothers are super-genius physicists, and may be the victims of the world's first Quantum Crime. They built a box that is beyond priceless, meant to be the most accurate scale ever conceived. This scale could measure a trillionth of a trillionth of a gram. Of course, the experiment does not go as expected, havok is wreaked, and the box vanishes, possibly teleported away by some nefarious quantum thief. Of course, the real question is: just what exactly was in this box? What were the Faderbauers measuring? Cat has some unnerving suspicions...

If you read comics, you probably know Mark Waid's work. He can always be relied on to deliver an excellent story, and The Unknown is no exception. With amazing art from Minck Oosterveer, and a unique story to be told, The Unknown is all set to be a hit! The only real mystery is why you haven't bought a copy of the first issue yet. Maybe it's because you didn't know that this comic is Four Color Fantasies guaranteed Book of the Week! Now that you know, investigate the quickest way to get to the shop, and give The Unknown #1 a try. Case closed! (Though I still don't understand why people watch reality TV.)

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