Author: Mark Millar
Publisher: Image
Rating: WORTHY!
Illustrated by Duncan Fegredo.
This is a sharp and entertaining comic which borrows heavily from pop culture icons like the Matrix movie trilogy, lesser-known movies such as Clockstoppers, as well as the DC Comics character 'The Flash', and so on, but manages to tell its own story, and offer some original twists and turns, including a fun ending.
The story begins when Roscoe needs some cash and is caught delivering drugs in a police sting. He thinks he can do the time, especially if he takes rehab courses (even though he's not an addict), behaves well, and shows an interest in reforming to get his sentence knocked down. The problem begins when he learns from a friend on the outside that he was deliberately sent into a trap to get him out of the way, so his drug pusher boss can have free access to Roscoe's girlfriend.
Roscoe reacts badly to this and digs a hole for himself by fighting with another prisoner. After he gets out of solitary, his cell mate once again tries to interest him in a new drug, MPH. Roscoe had turned this down before, but now he decides to give it a try and he discovers that this drug actually speeds up his mobility so much that it looks like everyone else is frozen - just like in one of those "bullet time' scenes from The Matrix and Clockstoppers. If you haven't seen either of those, but you've seen X-Men: Days of Future Past, think of the scene where Quicksilver helps to spring Magneto from the pentagon prison, and you;ll know the kind of thing to expect here.
Of course, no one actually is frozen, it merely appears that way because this guy is moving so blindingly fast. In fact he moves with such velocity that after Roscoe has left the building, he still has time to turn right around and go back to grab the bottle of MPH his cell mate is holding, which he shares with three of his closest friends. He discovers that traveling at super speed is the perfect cover for robbing banks. The downside, of course is that it does tend to attract the attention of law enforcement.
If it had gone all Reservoirs Dogs and ended-up in a bloody shoot-out, it would still have made a readable story, but it wouldn't have been that interesting to me. Fortunately, Millar takes it away from that into all kinds of explorations of the characters and their power, which is what really made this a worthy read for me. I liked the dialog, the plotting, the story, the art work and the coloring. All-in-all it's a great little book. Given the neat resolution to this story, it's hard to believe there's a second volume, but there is. I have not yet read that one so I can't comment knowledgeably on whether it's a worthy successor to this, but I suspect it features new characters who get their hands on a new supply of this drug which really puts a whole new perspective on the drug term, 'speed'!
