Top Cow Productions/Image Comics 2017
Written by Zack Kaplan
Illustrated by Andrea Mutti
Coloured by Vladimir Popov
Lettered by Troy Peteri
A deadly alien has broken travel restrictions and killed an innocent person on the California coast. While ESA Agent Rice is committed to following protocols and peacefully deporting our dangerous visitor back to Port, his partner McIntyre is determined to use lethal force regardless of the situation. Will these two agents be able to overcome their differences, avoid a galactic incident, and safely return the alien to the Port of Earth?
I find this book fascinating on so many levels, I mean first we have contact and they don’t want to mingle second we’ve got this whole politic debate going on to start each issue it’s kind of edgy of Zack to include in today’s world mindset, and then finally we’ve got the meat of the story where two ESA soldiers have wildly different viewpoints on what their job is and how to go about it. I might be in love with Zack I don’t know because the way he’s able to take all three aspects and turn that into this this cohesive story.
The way the book is structured is phenomenal I mean so we always with the televised debate raging where it’s the 1% corporations that are thriving who don’t care about anyone else. it’s real it’s now and it’s relevant to the reader. The rest is woven together so closely and in such a way that it makes the readers mind work to figure out angles that are going on here. I mean you could follow a number of trains of thought and be both right and wrong about what’s really going on here. It is almost a conspiracy theory nut jobs dream come true and I couldn’t fault them for it.
I like the level of characterisation here is wonderful and that once Zack kind of establishes that he doesn’t need to “work” on it, though he does, because all we see just feels like a natural progression of that person. I like that it feels as if I know them, how they are going to react and just that overall sense of kind of where they stand. While no one can truly know in my head I do and that is something I find impressive. Whether Zack has other plans for them that I’m not aware of which is hopefully the case I don’t know but I look forward to finding out.
Andrea is one of those whose work I cannot speak highly enough of. What else is there to say that’s new or will convince you that it’s something you need to be checking out regardless of what it is. His eye for storytelling that we see in the page layouts and through the use of angles and perspective show how strong it is. The linework, the attention to detail everything has this purpose on the page and it’s meant to evoke feelings in the reader. The backgrounds too are used with purpose and get equal attention as what is seen in the forefront.
The social commentary with the loss of jobs on a massive scale which is escalating the civil unrest isn’t helped any by the ESA invading a city on the California coast. Also not public knowledge is what else we learn about the ESA here and that’s the fact that they are pretty much operating in the dark where everything and I do mean everything is concerned. For more information on this and other issues the ESA faces please see the issue in question.
I adore the fact that Zack is able to weave politics, aliens and a military unit into a story make it run as smooth as a freshly zamboni’d ice at the rink. The writing is top notch and the illustrations are superb there’s nothing about this not to like.