This week I received a review copy of "Freemind #0 by future comics.
For those of you that read my column weekly here at Suite 101 (and well you should...) you may recall that I discussed that Future Comics was coming! For those who don't remember, it was way back in January 2002 and here's the link to the other article http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/comi...
To recap, Future Comics was formed by Bob Layton, Dave Michelinie, and Dick Giordano. They want to get back to the basics of quality storytelling and quality art. See the web page at http://www.futurecomicsonline.com for more information.
Okay, here's the setup. Freemind's origin will be explored in issues #1 through #3, so issue zero does not go into the character origin. The picture here is the art for the variant cover. (Copyright by Future Comics only, folks). I am not sure the reason for issue #0 nor how it fits in continuity for this universe. Freemind is apparently an electro-mechanical construct, but how it functions is a mystery. It appears to be in constant wireless communication with another person or organization, but has a mind of it's own.
The plot: Freemind is being transported in a box in the back of a truck. The truck is hijacked and Freemind ends up buried in the desert. Freemind awakens, unburies, and peruses the thieves. St. Synn (another Future Comics character) is also after the thieves. Freemind and St. Synn both clash with the thieves at a truck stop, and they clash with each other. St. Synn apparently has no preventative to keep him from killing the thieves outright. Freemind attempts to save lives, and ends up having to save many people at the truck stop. St. Synn and Freemind both catch up to the stolen truck to discover a mysterious cargo a block of something (electronic?) apparently held in place by some sort of force field.
The plot by Michelinie and Layton is a very good, very readable story. The art by Giordano and Layton lives up to their usual quality standard (see DC's miniseries "The L.A.W.") I especially liked the art, as the people are all believable, and the angles seem realistic. While I liked the story, I am not sure what is going on. What I did not like is that the St. Synn character kills the thieves instead of disabling them for the police to handle. While this has worked in comics in the past, it may put off some readers after the events of September 11, 2001. The issue raises many questions. Why are all these people after this object? What is its purpose? What does it do? What Bob, Dave and Dick have done is to give you a taste of the story on an interesting new character and leave you asking a lot of questions so you will look forward to the next issue.
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