Transhuman # 1
Writer: Jonathan Hickman; Art: J.M. Ringuet
Image Comics
Transhumanism is a fascinating topic, and I’ve followed the movement through some of Ray Kurzweil’s work and writings. Transhuman looks back at the first few years of fictional biotechnical success through the lens of documentary. The writing and art are both good, but the documentary aspect has me a bit concerned. Joss Whedon spoke on one of the Buffy TV show commentaries that he always worried about BtVS becoming merely radio with pictures (shot of person on left talking, shot of person on right responding, shot of both together, and repeat). The comic book equivalent is mere pictures with words, where the two do not complement each other to trick us into seeing action on a static page. A documentary in comic book form seems ripe for such issues. So far, Hickman and Ringuet dodged this problem, primarily by Ringuet using the characters’ body language to imply the kind of movement one would expect from within documentary. Hopefully they will continue the quality work, and I look forward to issue two.
Oh, and it has two pages of sociopathic monkeys with superpowers. If the writing and art don’t interest you, then at least check out the monkeys.