The Virgin Read: You Can Make This Incognito Review With 2 Parts Corn Starch 1 Part Water

Incognito # 1
Written by Ed Brubaker
Art by Sean Phillips
Published by Icon/Marvel Comics

Happy New Year!  Back in the saddle again….

I'm kickin’ off 2009 with a little Incognito.  Who can refuse a cover with a masked man (how does that mask stay attached to his face?) lighting his cigar with a burning $100 bill?  I can’t.  So wwrrreckless.  So arrogant.  So, I picked it.

I've been made to understand that this is the same team that writes Criminal.  I only read one issue of Criminal last year – but I really liked it.  At the time I didn’t have a lot to compare it to, was not yet aware what a gem it is.  Such strong storytelling and grit.  It managed to give this reader the feeling that she was reading “real life drama” in the vein of The Shield or The Wire – and yet it’s a comic book.  It’s illustrated.  Only after reading Criminal did I have the experience of reading, well, lesser comics.  (That may not be completely true, but that's the way I remember it.)  It's not like all comics suffered in comparison after Criminal, but some haven't seemed to set the bar as high for themselves.  Hey, that's okay.  That’s fine with me.  The old Shakespearean “know thyself” seems apropos here.  You know, if you know your comic book is a silly superhero romp – embrace it.  No need to try and be Criminal.

Finding out that this same team wrote Incognito after picking it, was a total bonus.  I didn't pick up on that at first.  I'll remember names some other time.  I realize they are really big and on the cover, but I'm not memorizing names yet.  That wasn't on the resolutions list.

Oh, and this is a first issue, it’s a Number One – and I sometimes think that Number Ones should be judged a little differently.  (Because that's what this is right?  Judgment?  And now I have standards?)  Maybe I do, but I'm thinking--first issue?  You can't expect too much.  Well, you can – but I think that’s setting a nearly impossible level to…not reach, but maintain.  If you have a first issue that has all the drama, violence, emotion, heartbreak, joy, death and hope that you could wish for, if that's what you're in the wishing for, I'm not, but maybe you are, and it's all there--now there’s just nowhere for that magic wish-fulfillment comic to go but downhill.  (For the magic wish fulfillment reader, obviously.  I guess the artist and writer can use that issue as a resume.)

I started singing when I was 10 years old.  I’d belt “Tomorrow” from Annie at the top of my lungs anywhere for anyone who would listen.  Yes, at the top of my lungs.  So they didn't really need to listen, they just needed to be in the general vicinity.  I knew nothing of artistry or sharing through song…nothing but some skill, that skill was called "volume."  That being my trick bag, I’d start out so loud with the singing, and then?  There was nowhere to go.  Well, there was – I could have gone softer, but that just didn’t seem to get the same attention.  So, I’d stay at the same volume.  FOR THE WHOLE SONG. (I am truly sorry Mom, Dad, Emerson, Andrew, Eleanor, Andre, Calvin, and anyone else’s ears I damaged.) 

I’m sure I’ve overstated my point now.  I might even be obfuscating my point.  Let's clarify.  I don’t want my “Issue Number One” comic to be like my younger self's rendition of “Tomorrow.”

Thankfully, Incognito was not.  It was, basically, the set-up issue.  The backstory.  It's told as a flashback, so that was less boring than just some straight narration.  I’d mentioned The MOTH storytelling tips in a review, and this was a story that started inside the action.  Our new friend, the mask wearing bill burner, is in the midst of kicking ass and saving some girl, telling her to forget that she ever saw him and alluding to the fact that “this is a mistake", followed with “sometimes making a mistake just feels so fucking good.”  See, letting us know a little bit more about this guy.  He’s definitely not your run-of-the-mill superhero or something.

Turns out that he’s not a very good guy.  I mean, in my opinion.  I don’t think we’re supposed to think he’s awesomely wonderful.  And no, I don't think he is--but he is really likable.  I'd imagine that isn't very easy to write.  It’s not a story I’ve heard before.  It sort of reminds me a little of what it would be like to mix Powers and Criminal--but it still seemed pretty unique, unusual even.

Over the holiday break, I watched the entire first season of Damages.  After watching the pilot,  I wasn’t 100% sold on the series.  But I tuned in again.  And again.  Now I’m totally psyched for this Wednesday (Season 2 starts!).  Incognito has me interested, more than I was in Damages after watching its first episode.  I think that’s saying something?  That a comic beat Glenn Close?  Does that happen a lot?  Should Glenn Close be my new comic barometer? 

You know what else?  I once again had the experience of thinking “oh, it is so relaxing to read comic books.  This is so cool.” I mean, I know it's not cool.  Or I'm not supposed to think it's cool.  But yeah, it was.  Incognito, on the couch.  Cool!

And if the Virgin Read thinks that, if that's what you got me thinking about, comic book?  I think the writer and artist have done a great job.

Oh – and the art!  Don’t mean to forget about the art.  (I’m just such a story girl.)  But hey, you know the art is well done if I’m totally drawn into the story.  Nothing about the art is taking me out of the story to think, “what?  That doesn’t even look like an arm.”  I like the colors.  But mostly I like the strong use of shadow and light.  A lot of shadow.  Its similar to Criminal – but I believe Criminal is just darker over all.  The shadow thing might be what gives this comic and Criminal that gritty feeling.  I do like it. 

I like it a lot.

-Nina Stone, 2009

Comments

[Jack Tango]

How does it stay on? Spirit gum, Nina. Spirit gum.

[nina]

Of course - Spirit gum! How could I forget the wonders of Spirit Gum?!?!

[Jack Tango]

I'd venture because the world, collectively, believed the Spirit was so bad, they willed all Spirit-Related things into the realm of Forgetful-Land.