Transhuman #1 (OF 4)

If you are not familiar with Jonathan Hickman's work he grabs these crazy story ideas from left field, writes them very well and with a lot of depth and brings you into the craziness and makes it all believable (see Nightly News and Pax Romana). He has written and drawn his previous work and they have a very beautiful, graphically designed interface. You are not reading standard panels - and it approaches genius. So if you love that idea go check out Nightly News and Pax Romana, if you lovED that idea - sorry don't expect it in Transhuman.

Even though this is paneled it is still a story that relies almost completely on its writing as it is a "mockumentary" about two companies vying for market and profit as they try to create the next evolution of man - one company biologically, the other artificially (cybernetics/robotics). It plays out like a standard doc. There is a narrator/interviewer who tells you the base of the story and then goes around and interviews people that are part of the story. Nearly ever panel is a "talking head," so there is a lot of dialogue to read - which i loved as that is my cup of tea. Hickman writes a story that really feels like it came off the television screen into a book.

The art I enjoyed - a lot actually. It has a very stylized, across the pond feel to it, but i think it works really well and it's different - don't we all need some different. Others might not like that Hickman didn't draw the book, but I say give the guy a break. He is branching out and working on multiple books right now. I feel fine about it.

The only criticism I have (and the reason the story gets a 4) for the book is that I'm pretty sure I read that it was a really funny book. It was kind of funny. There is a couple pages about monkeys that made me crack up, but if you took those out it felt more like a standard documentary than a mockumentary. Either way it was a great start to what should be a great story.