Author/Editor: Warren Ellis
Publisher: WildStorm
Rating: WORTHY!
Illustrated by an assortment of artists).
This is a story reminiscent of Thunderbirds and International Rescue, but for grown-ups! The Global Frequency consists of a network of 1001 people, ordinary citizens each with one some special skill or another, who are committed to lending an immediate hand if some huge (and typically sci-fi or dystopian) threat looms. The network is led by the mysterious Miranda Zero, evidently very rich, because she has distributed special satellite phones (which sell at around $1,000 a pop) whereby anyone can summon the GF by means of a special emergency button.
The call is answered by a mohawked girl named Aleph, who seems always to be there waiting for a call even though we see her sleeping in one obligatory and gratuitous chick's ass graphic novel panel (see image on my blog).
Aleph then launches local representatives into action, who always seem ideally suited to the task at hand. The graphic novel I read was a compendium of several stories, and the first of these was a group of cyborgs called in to tackle a cyborg who was nearly all robot and who had run amok.
I loved this story because there were some admirably kick-ass and tough female characters, and because the writer clearly understood that you cannot put a robot arm on a person (a la Steve Austin, 'The Six Million Dollar Man') and have him perform feats worthy of Superman.
The reason for this is that no matter how powerful the robot portion of your body is, it's still attached to the relatively fragile human portion, and if you try lifting a truck for example, then while the robot arm might well manage it, the rest of your body would break and tear under the stress put on it by the robot portion! It's really nice to se a sci-fi writer recognize this and address it.
The other stories were a mixed bag which were, on balance, enjoyable. I particularly liked the back-story about Miranda Zero, and the parkour story featuring a young Indian girl (Indian, not native American). It's nice to see some variety of ethnicity in these stories, unlike the almost exclusively white man's world of Marvel and DC comics. I highly recommend this series. It's very well written, beautifully illustrated (admirable use of white space - no trees wasted here), eminently readable and - within its context - realistic.
