The Infinite Horizon # 1
Written by Gerry Duggan
Art by Phil Noto
Published by Image Comics
'Tis the season of trying to squeeze as much into one day as possible: purchase Secret Santa gifts, finish end-of-year projects, spend time with people you love, etc. So this time, I picked a comic that I hoped would be worth my time.
I picked well!
Once again, I'm not ready for super-hero-ey stuff, although I guess I will eventually. And it will not be the Justice League, because, well. It just won't. Of today's options, there seemed to be a lot of first issues to take a chance on. I flipped through the pages of a few, but when I read the back of this one and saw it was based on The Odyssey, I was intrigued. (Mind you, I won't be comparing the two, because I have yet to read the Odyssey. I do own it, and it has a pretty cover. Actually I think it's the Illiad. Whatever.)
I guess I should talk about what I liked about this--well, I heard once that when writing, whether it's a screenplay, a novel, a play, anything, that it's best to have a big inherent question to pose. I'd also heard that it's best for it to show up on the first page, and it did--I just didn't know until I was finished. I didn't realize it upon reading the Captain's initial "After I took off the uniform...the real hell began" wasn't in reference to his civilian life following the war, but was more likely in reference to the final pages, where he and his men took upon the "native" clothes of the Middle Easterners they'd been killing.
So i'm kind of hooked! I might have to read the next issue. That's the thing though--i'm looking forward to reading it--the art to this comic was, for me, almost an afterthought. I plowed through it, and I kept having to remind myself to "look at the art." Some pages seemed unfinished, and others were so easily digestable that they didn't really register until I thumbed back through the issue while writing this. I loved the entire overall look of the comic, and I feel like there was a thematic look of color that helped distinguish well--the browns and blues of the war, and the greens and blues of the Catskills. I thought the Captain's wife was drawn really warmly, which I'm sure was intentional, and it was presented in stark contrast to the battle sequences--again, another choice that must have been made by design. Still, I'm coming back for the story on this one--the art didn't get my panties in a twist.
Well, here I am--wondering what happens next. Will he see his wife again? What happens in the Catskills? I'll look forward to the post-holiday season to find out.
-Nina Miller, 2007, wondering what the first season of Dexter is like.
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