Everyone should read Echo. It's so much more interesting than any other comic book out there right now. Written by Terry Moore, the writer of Strangers In Paradise, Runaways, and Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane, it's a huge departure from what I'd come to expect from him. The most recent installment begins the run-up to the end - it's a limited series, in 30 parts. This is part 22.
The story begins with a bang - literally. Julie Martin is recovering from a divorce, out at Moon Lake (a dry lake bed) with her camera when BLAM! Something explodes in mid-air, pelting her with drops of silvery metal, which will not come off her skin. Instead, the drops merge into a kind of breastplate, covering most of her upper body and one arm.
A doctor tries to touch it, and it takes his fingernail off. Anyone with violent intent toward Julie is either thrown off or killed, all without Julie being able to control what the suit is doing. And it's growing - the alloy attracts stray droplets of itself, and the more it attracts, the more Julie hears... an echo.
What Julie doesn't know is that the metal is an alloy from a very special suit created by physicist Annie Trotter for the Phi Project. The big bang Julie witnessed (and is now wearing the fallout from) was Annie testing the suit. Boom. But Annie isn't completely gone. The alloy bonds with the wearer at the quantum level, bonding DNA to itself. Somehow, the echo of Annie survives, and the more of the alloy Julie wears, the more strongly Annie is able to come through. And boy, do they need her to come through.
Turns out that the Phi Project, like so many earthly organizations, doesn't know its own strength. They are committed to running this alloy through their collider (you know, like the Large Hadron Collider at Cern...?). Annie knows that when they do this, it will be the last act of man - it will create a wormhole, a black hole, that will swallow up the entire earth, the solar system, maybe the universe itself. So the race is on to stop that collider - Julie is aided by Dillon, Annie's boyfriend, and Ivy Raven, an agent sent to retrieve her, but who switches sides to help Julie.
Echo is a book that, while I love Terry Moore's clean, elegant line work, would really benefit from color. The story is complex and it's sometimes hard to tell one character from another at key moments. It can be figured out without a lot of brain bending or eyestrain, it's just that with color, I think it would just be a bit more organic to follow.
The book is a fascinating read, combining elements of physics, metaphysics and psychology; it's the Dan Brown equivalent of an analysis of religion. heh heh. It's also nominated for an Eisner award, so I'm not the only geek who thinks it's worth a look. Not only that, but Terry Moore's latest creation has caught the attention of Hollywood - Lloyd Levin, producer of the Watchmen, Hellboy, The Rocketeer and others, has optioned the series for a movie. Check it out.
Batman 700
Still, "Time and the Batman" - cleverly, this is the answer to the riddle/joke that is posed again and again in the story - is an interesting read, using several different artists, among them Frank Quitely and Adam Kubert, to tell a tale of many Batmen.
I liked the way the characterization of Batman-Dick is progressing. He smiles. He asks the cop about his child. He's a kinder, gentler Batman. I liked the way the characterization of Batman-Damian shows him to be a different man, and a different Batman altogether. I loved seeing Terry MacGinnis in continuity for the first time (I think it was the first time, anyhow). Batman past, present and future - it was a great idea, and some of it worked well.
Some of it was a bit obtuse, however (that's Morrison for you). I got the ending, I guess, but it really felt a bit disjointed and hyper at the end. I know they were going for a manic feel, especially in the Damian timeline, but it just got very confusing for me, and the artwork was too busy and felt a bit rushed - anniversary issues sell forever, it's not good to rush them. Overall, I recommend the book, but with the reservation that if you like a good, clean, readable story, this may not fit the bill in all areas. But where it works, it's very good, and a fun and worthwhile investment.
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