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Archangel h/c


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Archangel h/c back

William Gibson & Butch Guice

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Page 45 Review by Jonathan

"Mr. Vice President, please remain still... as I remove the bandages. The final procedure was entirely successful. See for yourself."
"Granddaddy was a good looking man."
"They know nothing of D.N.A., so they'll have no way of knowing you're not him. You should have no difficulties assuming his identity."

So why would the Vice President of the United States of America want to travel back in time to February 1945 and replace his relative, one Major Aloysius Henderson of the Office of Strategic Services, the precursor of the C.I.A? Well, given it seems like there has been some sort of catastrophic global nuclear conflict, judging from the scenes of total devastation in Tokyo, Moscow and London that we get a glimpse of on the opening page dated February 2016, I suspect altering the course of history might be high on the VP's to-do list. A list entitled 'Archangel'.

Not that it seems everyone on the experimental Quantum Transfer project is of the same mindset. The chief scientist Torres, who seems to have a pretty good idea of precisely who is to blame for the current highly radioactive state of the environment, has just enough remaining quantum transfer juice to send a stealth fighter and two marines back as well, to try and foil the VP's plot. Except whilst the first time jump works perfectly, the second, well, let's just say there are some unexpected complications. The action then shifts to 1945 where the various Allied intelligence services suddenly find themselves with a rather perplexing puzzle to solve.

This the first crack at comics from the acclaimed cyberpunk author, and I must say, on the whole, I'm certainly impressed as he avoids the pitfalls most first-timers, even big names, can find themselves tumbling headlong into. ARCHANGEL has the serious speculative feel of say, Greg Rucka's LAZARUS, which I think from the tone of the writing and cast of characters is probably the most obvious comparison to make. There are some fabulous bits of dialogue too, particularly in the WW2 era between various spies who seem just as concerned with getting one over each other as dealing with the situation in hand, which also minded me of Brubaker's VELVET.

Gibson can certainly write decent comics based on this outing. There was an interminable delay getting the monthly issues out during the run of singles, which did rather disrupt my enjoyment at the time, but happily, in the collected form, it all runs very smoothly. Just not for the characters... any of them at all in fact. I did slyly enjoy Gibson's afterword which talks about revising his 'alternate time-track story' as he went along. I know he probably wasn't referring to the publishing schedule but it did make me giggle. Amongst other plot points, he's actually very specifically referring to the epilogue, which again, caused me to occasion a very wry smile. I thought it a rather fitting conclusion.

The art from Butch Guice is excellent, fans of his work on THE DEATH OF CAPTAIN AMERICA and WINTER SOLDIER will know what to expect. I always feel he's like a slightly grittier version of Bryan Hitch though here he most reminds me of Michael Lark's work on LAZARUS, actually. Not sure if Gibson has any further plans to write more comics, this apparently started life as a screenplay before discussions with IDW led to it being commissioned as a comics series. But I'd love to see him tackle a longer speculative fiction series, something which acclaimed horror author Joe Hill did superbly for IDW with his LOCKE & KEY epic.
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