“Brain Boy #2” by Marc Alan Fishman – Snarky Synopsis | @MDWorld
October 27, 2013 Marc Fishman 0 Comments
Written by Fred Van Lente. Art by R.B. Silva, Rob Lean, and Ego
Brain Boy, United States psychic super spy! Brain Boy, orphan raised by a company to be a mind-for-hire! Brain Boy, hates being called Brain Boy! And that’s all you really need to know. BB is a Dark Horse produced sci-fi romp-n’-stomp from the mind of many of Marvel’s recent hits (and a few misses), Fred Van Lente. Backed by a very modern art team, the book fights hard to walk the line between smooth Soderbergh caper, campy 50’s spy-throwback, and Whedon-esque wizz-bang character study. In the end, you get the best of all worlds, to a point. Put on your thinking caps kiddos, let’s dive into the grey matter and see what sticks.
For those not familiar with issue 1 (that includes me, but I like to fly without a net), the plot is thick but not impossible to understand. Brain Boy, I’m sorry… Agent Price is hired by the CIA (or Secret Service, or the NSA, or someone in a black suit) to escort an especially evil-but-diplomatically-
The rest of the issue moves the plot along swimmingly. Essentially, Ricorta held the one man who could cause him real trouble in a prison. Brain Boy and Super-Slick-Spy figure it out, and BB frees him. There’s a bunch of slick spy-talk, and secrets divulged, and run-around in between. By books’ end, Ricorta is escorted to his fancy party. Because Van Lente takes stock in the Kirkman / Vaughn era of comics, we end on a cliffhanger — With Ricorta vs. Brain Boy, round 3? 4? 27? In spite of it being telegraphed a mile away, it’s handled with appropriate swagger. Certainly enough to come off as being all part of a days work for our titular hero.
Van Lente’s scripting is tight, funny when it needs to be, and only falters when it gets too preachy with backstory and world-building. Call me a purist, but sometimes you have to let your reader learn the lingo of a universe over time. When a character, caption box, or other crutch is forced to hand-hold through lofty names, backstory, and needless details… all it accomplishes is wasted time and words. Star Wars never needed to explain how the lightsaber worked. They just did, and that was enough. Van Lente tepidly falls back on Brain Boy and his superior snark to carry the book. It works for the most part. Because Price is powerful but young, the scripting is smart enough to keep in mind as things progress. He’s good, but he’s not great yet. He’s devoid of angst, which is amazing and welcome. The other players surrounding Price are not exactly deep, yet, but we are of course only on issue 2.
Art duties are tackled by penciler R.B. Silva, inker Rob Lean, and colorist Ego. The pages are kinetic, bold, and very ‘new’. Silva’s figures are sharp, and Lean’s inks make them sharper. Ego’s palate is bright, and very ‘big two’, save for the overly-photoshopped knockouts and glows I’ve been snarkily railing against lately. The only misfire for me visually is the representation of Brain Boy’s telekinetic powers. The odd spiky yellow orbs litter panel after panel, and are not subtle enough to be “seen but unseen”. Instead, they grasp unwanted attention, and do little to move the eye properly throughout the panel and page. In addition, Silva’s depiction of Brain Boy seems to shift panel to panel. Sometimes, his overly animated faces make it hard to tell that you’re looking at the same character from a few pages back. All that nitpicking aside, the artwork meshes well with the story, and feels well-made.
Ultimately Brain Boy is a sharply written, off-the-beaten-path indie-ish book worth your time. Brain Boy himself (who really does hate that name…) is fairly well fleshed out as a hero. He’s nimble minded (heh), and it makes for a good read. Nice to see a Jean Grey-lite who isn’t instantly deflowered into an all-powerful God, ready to be sacrificed for no good reason. Aside from a bit of a hard-on for world-building, Fred Van Lente’s word-smithing is deft and fun to read. Combined with a slick and modern art style? You get a complete package without a Marvel or DC label. Image, Dark Horse, Boom! Studios? They’re showing the comic reading world what it means to be original. Do yourself a favor, and give a gander for something off the beaten path. You never know what you’ll find.
Of course in this case you’ll find a psychic-spy-thriller, who wears a sharp vest.