The Virgin Read: The Beginning Of Something Completely Different

Unthinkable # 3
Written by Mark Sable
Art by Julian Totino Tedesco & Juan Manuel Tumburús
Published by Boom Studios

In 1989, driven by a passion for dance, this girl found herself at a Methodist college in Oklahoma, taking a Bible Literature class. It was a requirement.

I'm from the East Coast. Spent my first year of college at Boston's Emerson. (Go Lions? I think they were Lions.) Though I've never left this Earth, I can imagine that the Emerson/Oklahoma change that I experienced was much like going from one planet to another. And I'd thought Emerson was pretty weird - but nothing prepared me for the land where people responded "Do what?" to anything you said, whether your statement requested action or not, and to an entirely new addition to my fashion knowledge called Sunday Dress.

My time in Oklahoma also gave me my first experience of anything religious being a requirement. (I'm an East Coast Jew. We play things optionally.) But I have to admit that I liked it. I'm Jewish and I grew up learning Hebrew and having a Bat Mitzvah, but I don't recall really learning anything about the Bible. It's not that they didn't try to teach it to us, we were just a really bad class (this was told to us constantly) and didn't really care to learn anything. Being forced by course requirements to pay attention to it in Oklahoma helped me care, but that was married to an honest interest in that Bible Literature class. I liked it so much that I followed up with another class in religion: Intro to Judaism.

The local rabbi taught that one. He did not have a southern accent, although I did get a kick out of hearing that Oklahoman twang co-mingle with Hebrew pronunciation at Rosh Hashana services that year. I remember enjoying that class, but I don't remember the information very well. What really sticks out is that there was this older woman who was taking it, and she was always telling everybody how "Husbands don't make for very good friends", and something the Rabbi referred to as the Messianic Complex. Or Messianic Conundrum. Or...wow, maybe I didn't pay that much attention.

That Messianic Quandary (is that it?) is what's at the center of this issue of Unthinkable. The Israelis believe that we (the Jews) have to rebuild the temple in Jerusalem right on the spot where the Muslims have built the Dome of the Rock. And in this issue, the team, or group, or whatever they are, have to get there and put the kibosh on whatever "end times" scenario was originally "written" to happen there.

Wait, did I mention why this is a special column? I didn't.

I picked this comic. I did! Me, all by myself. Now I usually pick my comic each week, but from a pre-picked pile that has already made it back to the offices of TFO, which is picked up by this weird little teenager my husband sends to the store. But we're not doing that anymore! This week I actuallly walked to the comic book shop and picked from last week's available comics--like, all of them, not just a select few--for the sake of this column. I walked there! It was hot out. Unthinkable # 3, you're my first outside the dating pool sleepover!

I read the inside cover recap (thank you for that, as always) and it sounded clever to me. I like this sort of stuff. I didn't ever see that Will Ferrel movie where he's the character in Meryl Streep's book, but I meant to. Again, it's one of those clever sort of scenarios that seems like a fun ride to jump on. A story I can't forsee the ending to, at all. A story way more clever than I am. And it sounded like it had that same potential.

Only after finishing it did I look to see that this was the third of five issues. (I should probably start paying attention to that at the store, but it's not going to be very fun to only read first issues, I think.) I noticed the "3" because I was getting ready to criticize this comic for having too much in one issue, but then I realized that wasn't the case, it was just that I was trying to get my head around all that had happened.

I enjoyed Unthinkable anyway. The main character has a Jack Bauer-ish thing going on. My first introduction to him is while he's being beaten and interrogated. I immediately felt so much sympathy and pity for him, and was already siding with him and thinking that his interrogators were stupid. And I assumed that he's this writer who certainly can't handle this - just a victim of horrible circumstance. But then this guy gets out of the situation and starts kicking ass, and it turns out he's a little renegade. Because, yes, he did write these scenarios. No, he's not bringing them about, but he's the only one who can anticipate them and has the imagination in place to handle them. That's a pretty cool idea. And he and the "team" got out of the Jerusalem incident in a way I could would not have foreseen. Storywise, I'm completely satisfied.  

There's something about the art--it's a little weird and I can't put my finger on it. I mean, weird to me. I'm no art critic but something about the amount of lines drawn on all the faces rubs me the wrong way. But over all, the art tells the story, so maybe it's just a style choice that I don't care for. It's got that cinematic thing happening with close ups in one frame that pan out to a birds-eye view in the next. It works to give the reader more information than the dialogue alone would. Lines or no, I can appreciate that.  

I don't want to toot to hard on my own horn here, but I think I made a good choice. I liked this comic. Sure, the topic is a little heavy. But of all the end-of-the-world, apocalypse-y stuff I've been reading in these comics lately, I prefer this one.

-Nina Stone, 2009

Comments

[plok]

Next up for you: Asterios Polyp.

[Tim O'Neil]

Wow, a fellow temporary Okie. I lived in Owasso, about ten minutes north of Tulsa, but I spent some time in Norman too. People don't understand just how different it can be . . . I grew up in California and then ended up in OK for three and a half years and it was sort of like a crucible.

[urmom]

My God, how is it possible that everything you have to say is useless and meaningless? In a way, it's an accomplishment of some note.

[nina]

And your comment is so full of use and meaning. Thanks for leading by example. You're truly a person of great character. Thanks for stopping by and spreading your sunshine.

[Kenny Cather]

Nina!

Your Factual Faithful still love you and your work! Please don't let the negativity get you down!

OK is an interesting place. A company I used to work for had its corporate headquarters there and everyone was just *so* nice. (Except most of the executives, they were kinda free of personality, which I thought was odd....)

I think your reviews are the best when you flesh them out with your personal anecdotes and how the work you're reviewing affects you due to your background and life.

I think Asterios Polyp would be an amazingly good choice for you. I've only read a few pages so far, but it's an amazingly cool work. The use of color is fantastic. I think it would be a rewarding experience!

Anyway, keep on being you and please don't let the negativity get you down!

[nina]

Hey there, Kenny. Don't worry. I sort of find that negativity kind of funny. Usually I get that response when I say I don't like a comic...not when I do.

So, yes, I believe I will take Plok up on his suggestion. Tucker handed it to me this morning on his way out the door. So...we'll see......:)

[Matthew J. Brady]

Not to criticize, but I'm slightly confused as to how the first half of the review relates to the second half. Usually you tie the personal anecdotes into discussion of the comic so well, so maybe it's just me being dumb here. Is the Messianic Complex/Conundrum/Quandary the belief that the Jews must rebuild the temple to fulfill prophecy? I know I heard about that when I was growing up, since I was raised in a pretty fundamentalist Christian culture. The Biblical "end times" require that the temple be standing before Jesus returns, so Christians have a vested interest in Israel rebuilding (which is why they're okay with Palestinians being treated so horribly; gotta love those moral contradictions inherent in religion). Is this part of the comic? I haven't read any of Unthinkable, but I've been meaning to check it out; from what I had heard, it seemed to be about terrorism and worst-case-scenarios coming true, but I didn't realize that Biblical/Hebrew prophecy played into it. That does make sense though, since other religions besides Islam are certainly capable of inspiring violent action.

Anyway, sorry if I'm being harsh or whatever; I'm trying not to be mean. Don't stop with the personal anecdotes; I love that stuff. It's certainly true that things are so different in the South. I went to college there and lived in Texas for a few years, and even though it's probably less different from where I grew up in Oregon than it is from the East Coast, it's still weird, just in the way people talk and act. Yay, shared experiences! We're a big happy family here on TFO.

[Kenny Cather]

Boy, that Matthew Brady, just a constant source of negativity! ^_^

Anyway, Nina, I think I might try reading Asterios Polyp in anticipation of your review! I've been thinking about picking it up, but I felt like I needed something to push me over the edge.