Transhuman #3 (OF 4)

First off, let me say that I love Jonathan Hickman. Unless there’s something before Nightly News that someone can tell me about, I have bought and will probably buy everything he’s done and will do. The range, complexity, and density of his ideas are astounding. I can think of few other creators who give such bang for buck. He is so good for comics. I'm really enjoying his 'What if corporations made superheroes?' story.

But! One time he wrote into a Word Balloon Bendis Tapes and said something to the effect of (paraphrase! potential misrepresentation ahead!): “I’m great on plot, but character is a relative weakness.” I have to agree, and here’s why: His characters are all dicks!

Hickman critiques. He does it very well, it’s always interesting and often illuminating, but that’s what he’s done. He writes primarily about the elite- the upper echelon and what they do wrong. I wanna see a story about someone not-rich-and/or-powerful who does something right. Even when he writes about the underclass (like the monkeys in this issue), they do stuff that is viscerally cathartic but morally aversive. It reminds of a lot of movies by Louis Buñuel and Jean Luc Godard: Yes you can tell me what’s wrong with the bourgeoisie, but can you tell me what’s right about the proletariat? That old criticism of radicals: ‘You can tell me what you’re against, but can you tell me what you’re for?’

For Hickman to do a great character, I want him see him write, and hopefully draw (although J.M. Ringuet does great expressive acting), someone he believes in, someone who he agrees with. This hypothetical character doesn’t have to be 100% perfect on a 100% righteous path. Doing the right thing is always messy and full of failure. But doing the wrong thing is easy. Doing the right thing is hard and never obvious. I’d love to see Hickman try to figure it out. Maybe that's Red Mass for Mars.