The next accommodates spoilers for No Man’s Land #1, on sale now from Image Comics.
It is attention-grabbing how the time period “excessive idea” has taken on such a selected that means to be one thing that’s simply boiled down to at least one catchy sentence (the proverbial “elevator pitch”), however actually, excessive ideas are extraordinarily widespread everytime you’re pitching ANY form of new thought. Watchmen might be boiled right down to “Superhero homicide thriller,” however heck, you’ll be able to go even additional, and boil stuff like Superman right down to “Solely survivor of a destroyed planet lands on Earth, and makes use of the powers he features from being an alien on Earth to struggle for fact, justice, and the American Approach.” Nevertheless, I believe when folks hear the time period “excessive idea,” they actually suppose “Catchy and novel thought for a narrative.” As an example, on this planet of comedian books, probably the greatest excessive ideas was 30 Days of Night, the thought of “What if vampires assault a kind of cities in Alaska that do not see solar for a month?” The late, nice Gardner Fox would even discuss about his “What If…?” room, the place he would provide you with concepts for tales by utilizing that phrase. “What if…?” In No Man’s Land, author/artist Szymon Kudrański has provide you with his personal 30 Days of Evening hook, and it is a good one.
No Man’s Land #1 is from author/artist Szymon Kudrański, letterer DC Hopkins, and editor/translator help Atom Morwill, and it builds upon the excessive idea of the sequence in a robust narrative that pulls in all types of Chilly Battle ideas to actually spotlight the central hook of the sequence.
What’s the “excessive idea” of No Man’s Land?
In case you might be unfamiliar with them, the Diomede Islands are two islands that sit within the Bering Strait between the US and Russia. The one island, Large Diomede Island, is a part of Russia, whereas the small island, Little Diomede Island, is a part of Alaska. The Worldwide Date Line passes by means of the water between the islands, so Large Diomede is sort of a day forward of Little Diomede (because the time zones there are a bit ill-defined, it is really 21 hours forward). That has led to the islands having the secondary nicknames of Tomorrow Island and Yesterday Island.
So, through the winter, the water between the islands freeze, and so it creates an ice passage from one island to the following, so you’ll be able to actually stroll from the US to Russia.
Okay, so, what if, through the top of the Chilly Battle, quickly after the Cuban Missile Disaster, a homicide was dedicated alongside that icy path, in between the 2 islands, in a brief “land” that’s neither owned by Russia nor the US. Nicely, as you may think, THAT is exactly what occurs on this sequence, and that’s the “excessive idea” of No Man’s Land.
Early within the situation, we’re launched to Henry Collins, a veteran FBI agent who’s nearly completed together with his profession with the Bureau. He’s having bother typing out his official letter of resignation, so he decides that he might need to only write it out in pencil. He’s then summoned to his boss’ workplace, the place he discovers that the FBI is not going to be ALLOWING him to retire, as they want him for a really particular mission, the aforementioned homicide in between the 2 Diomedes Islands.
Nicely, unsurprisingly, Collins’ spouse, who was anticipating him to be retired at present, will not be happy with this new flip of occasions. SURPRISINGLY (effectively, a minimum of to Collins), she will not be going to place up with it, so she leaves Collins proper earlier than his huge mission of nationwide safety…
The difficult factor for Collins is that he’s solely licensed to analyze on the small island, and the KGB agent being despatched by the Russians can solely examine on the BIG island, and if both of them was “caught” on the opposite island, they’d be handled as a spy, and, effectively, as you would possibly guess, that’s not a great state of affairs.
Neither is the truth that this island is so distant that there is not even an airport, and Collins must be deposited by helicopter by a pilot who ominously tells him to attempt to survive…
Kudrański is a superb artist, and he actually drives house the remoteness of the state of affairs that Agent Collins finds himself in. Greg Rucka and Steve Lieber had their OWN great “high concept” comic book series, Whiteout, which is a couple of homicide dedicated in a kind of Antarctic analysis stations, and as you’ll be able to inform from the title of that sequence, Rucka and Lieber understood that one of many freakiest issues for folks to take care of on this world IS the thought of a “Whiteout,” and Kudrański, too, makes use of that idea to nice impact on this comedian, as the entire vastness of the ice provides off such a stark and unyielding surroundings.
The one factor that I believed was a little bit of a downside within the first situation is that I might have appreciated to have the KGB agent launched earlier within the situation. From what I’ve learn in regards to the sequence, it appears like she’ll be successfully the co-lead of the sequence, and if that is the case, then I might have most popular for her to get a highlight a bit sooner than the second situation of the sequence. There’s solely 4 points within the e-book, so if you happen to’re not beginning the interactions between the 2 predominant characters till situation #2, it places you a bit behind the eight-ball.
That is not a significant concern, although, and the general results of this primary situation was nonetheless fairly good. Robust, moody paintings, a compelling lead character, and an impressive excessive idea actually makes for a great mixture, and this sequence has lots going for it, and I am going to you should definitely maintain studying the remainder of this thriller.
Supply: Picture Comics
