Universe Building At Its Finest
Writer: Warren Ellis
Artist: Jon Davis-Hunt
Warning: Spoilers for The Wild Storm #1
Issue #1 of The Wild Storm is an absolute triumph. Packed with rich and clever dialogue it serves as a fresh reboot for longstanding fans and an intriguing issue for first time readers. Jon Davis-Hunt brings the universe into the 21st century with clean, bold artwork and beautifully crafted characters. So much can be gleamed from the way these characters are drawn that the art and narrative work in tandem. Hunt offers subtext and nods to the past alongside the sardonic humour so characteristic of The Wild Storm universe.
The first panel opens with a young Lucy Blaze, codename Zealot, her face marked with blood in a manner that mirrors the markings of Ellis’ long-standing character. As she wipes the blood away we come to understand that this really is a reboot, a fresh start for Blaze who could move in an entirely different direction from the established character we’ve come to know and love.
The environment and architecture are not so different from our own. It is a world built of skyscrapers and screens, huge faces and flashing images peering down to those below. The de-familiarisation comes from the dialogue which is packed with world-sculpting information in a way that is both darkly humorous and subtle. The arbitrary way in which the characters speak of conspiracy, subterfuge and state control sets up a world where corruption is able to live freely in the open. It all suggests the plausibility of these structures, these social norms, existing in our own world. In fact, are we already there?
This is what the best science fiction does. It continually forces us to look at the bizarre systems perpetuated by humankind. The systems that restrain and bind, that alienate us from ourselves and each other while professing free market equality. Science fiction pulls us into the alienation of these othered worlds in order to show the reader, in an often sickening and gut wrenching way, how mundanely familiar these realities are. The Wild Storm ‘…inserts the marvellous into our reality in order to depict the manner in which our stabilizing visions of reality potentially prove to be nothing more than fantasies.’[1]
The mundane nature with which Blaze wipes the blood from her face after an ‘interview’ turned butchering suggests a world that less than values human life in an unapologetic sort of way. The presence of a clean-up team on standby really compounds this sense of murder as routine. The blasé jokes passed between Blaze and her cleaners display a nonchalance that is unsettling. Blaze remarks ‘He’s probably leaked into the toilet, so don’t flush. We don’t want him in the city water supply… We all have our place in life. Fulfil yours. Protect innocent people from things floating in toilets.’ Such remarks coupled with the eternally youthful Jacob Marlowe suggest an exaggeration of our own reality where life and freedom can be bought and sold. This is universe building at its finest by Hunt and Ellis. Always hinted at, the reader is gradually submerged into this new world order. By page two it all seems both entirely normal and plausible.
So, when Angela Spica bursts into some sort of human machine hybrid it’s accepted quite readily. Especially as the dialogue between herself, Julian and Miles has introduced the idea of body modification. Angela’s top is bloodstained as she admits ‘Tried to make a start myself, like a prototype, Rrrreally hurt!’ She professes ‘I want to make us all safer! I want to bring the future on! AND I WANT THIS THING OUT OF ME!’ The fact that this exchange takes place in front of a café in broad daylight makes the notion of body modification all the more ordinary.
The Wild Storm universe again asserts its futurist scepticism by rendering Angela as an IronManesk vigilante who is bleeding and violated from the contraptions she’s built. It makes her transformation all the more impressive as she swoops into the sky to save a falling Marlowe despite the pain it causes her. Antithesis to the suave man-machine that is Iron Man; Angela is depicted as erratic, aggressive and with a propensity toward modifications that border self-mutilation. She’s the sort of human machine hybrid that is realistic to both our world and that of Wild Storm.
This fist issue is a refreshing departure from the often naive optimism of other mainstream superhero narratives. It’s gritty and bold with a cast of sharp witted characters who are truly multidimensional. I cannot wait to see how issue #2 unfolds.
[1] Alva Miller, Exploring the Limits of the Human Through Science Fiction, (Palgrave Macmillan: December 2012), pp. 12.
