Posted in: Comics | Tagged: Comics, eric stephenson, nowhere men

Tuesday Review: Nowhere Men #2

Published Tue, 11 Dec 2012 19:00:01 -0600

Alex Wilson writes;

Nowhere Men issue 2, written by Eric Stephenson and featuring the art of Mate Bellegarde and Jordie Bellaire, will be on comic book store shelves December 19^th. The first issue of this series left me a little confused but intrigued. The second issue starts off on good old Earth with one of our front cover scientists from the first book talking with a young go getter from his company about the space station that was built behind the public's back with a crew that has contracted an unknown virus.

Not much that was set up in the first issue is explored much more in depth. The first half of the comic struggled to hold my attention. Most of the story consisted of this old versus young verbal warfare with more confusing plot that will hopefully be explained in more depth as soon as issue 3 because I didn't enjoy the first part at all. From the first issue, this felt more like a science fiction book but the first half portrays it as some sort of corporate revenge story.

We never get the sense of a main character either. The book jumps around from perspectives but never identifies one singular character as the focus point the book is jumping off from. So far, we just have an assortment of characters that have basic personalities and no particular character is very deep. This is only the second issue and I suppose I may be asking too much of character development too quickly but I would at least like to see a central character.

The second half of this book is where the art and writing shine. As the first part takes place on Earth, the second takes place in the space station miles about our planet. The virus is manifesting itself in many different ways depending on the crewmember that is infected. The infections range from mild deformities to major deformities to almost downright superpowers. The crew on the ship is desperate and under the impression that no one is coming to save them. One of the scientists aboard develops a teleportation device but other crewmembers are skeptical about whether the invention truly works and if they are walking into their own deaths.

The art in the second half is more interesting and I feel that is because there is more to work with. In the first half everyone, for the most part, is just standing around talking. The second half has the elements the virus creates and that makes for some more interesting art.

The second half, the space station half, of the story is much more interesting and riveting than the more down to Earth corporate side. I'm sure Stephenson is building towards something down on Earth but at this point I'm not very interested. I want to know what happens to the crew up above instead of the corporate executives below.

I'm interested to see where this book goes but at this point I'm not impressed beyond belief. If you read the first and enjoyed, pick up the second issue but if you are just mildly intrigued, wait until future issues come out and then pick up the trade paper back.

Nowhere Men issue 2 will hit shelves December 19^th.

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