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Review: Nomad #1 by Sean McKeever and David Baldeon

Published Wed, 09 Sep 2009 14:57:19 -0500

Nomad is a substitute character. Intially the identity Steve Rogers took in an abscence from the Captain America identity, when he got annoyed at the US government for the sort of things Michael Moore has a go at them for too. Though Moore doesn't dress in spandex to do it. Sorry about that picture, mea culpa. And here Nomad looks like it will be the identity that Rikki Barnes will take on, as she is absent from her own world, faking her way and finding that and her Bucky identity no longer does the job it used to.

This starts off all fairly predictable refugee-from-another-dimension, Rikki Barnes, who used to be Captain America's sidekick in her world is trying to find another Captain America to be a sidekick to in the one. It's kind of where we left the character in previous Capcontinuity. So I'm expecting a comic that leads to some kind of confrontation and realisation between the two, and that's where it looks to be going.

And then stops. And becomes Buffy The Vampire Slayer Season Two instead. High school drama, mysterious things going on, pupils acting strangely, a satire on the cult of the political personality and damn, what comic was I reading again?

And I realised how much I missed this kind of setting with a well told story. It's been too long since Veronica Mars and Freaks And Geeks as well. And Press Gang is an age away. Nomad #1 was a surprise, a welcome one and one I want more of. I expect we'll see some balance between Rikki Barnes two worlds, mirroring her own experience of two actual worlds,but I hope they keep as much as they can set in this school.

Every now and then when I'm walking through an empty part of London at night I think that superheroes just couldn't work here. They'd look wrong, alone, echoing through the night as they walked. It's the last place a superhero would be but often the place they are most needed. McKeever and Baldeon nail that here, as we see an injured Rikki Barnes doing that trip. It is haunting, empty, cold and final.

I like this comic a lot. There are no events, no Norman Osborn, no Dark Nomads or Dark Bucky (not yet anyway) and yet its a much a part of Marvel continuity as can be.

And a well told story with well defined characters, clever panel to panel storytelling, mood setting and decent twists and intrigue along the way.

What more do you want from her, blood? Well you get that too. And a Rob Liefeld/Jeph Loeb credit. Is Tom Brevoort the editor? Yes he is!

Nomad #1 is published by Marvel tomorrow.

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