Broken Frontier

Robert Kirkman’s cult favorite hero gets his own ongoing by newcomer Bruce Brown and heavyweight champ Cliff Rathburn.  And it is very, very good.

After three black and white one shots, numerous guest appearances in Invincible , and a full-color graphic novel collection of all that’s come before, the what-if-Captain-America-wasn’t-suspended-in-ice-and-also-randomly-happened-to-be-invulnerable “Brit” comes into his own at long last.  Of course, creator Robert Kirkman is only pulling editorial duties on this one, so where does that leave this long-awaited comic?  Who the heavens-to-Betsy is Bruce Brown?  And holy cow, is Rathburn pulling triple-threat duty as penciler, inker, and colorist on the same title?  Rest assured, Brit is in good hands, talented hands that’ll make you ask “Robert who…?” and hands that don’t seem to suffer for all the ridiculous amount of work they’re pouring into this.

Let’s start at the beginning: why is there some unknown dipstick named Bruce Brown handling such a high profile book?  For starters, Bruce is a writer who - until now - has gone under the pen name Kimo Temperance, and so actually has a sparse but existent comic book bio.  He’s the guy behind Chaser’s Moon, the backup over in Battle Pope (a series of shorts that was introduced way back when Kirkman was but a young upstart himself and peddling the Funk-o-tron anthology Inkpunks) and he’s additionally scripted a number of brief Batman tales.  Though beyond this, what makes him worthy to write Brit?  Well, I can’t say for sure, although - and this is total guess work, mind you…total shot in the dark kind of stuff, but…I think it has something to do with his overwhelming talent.

I remember reading the long-ago published Inkpunks title, but I indeed read it “long ago”, and so I remember little about Chaser’s Moon, but Brown’s Brit is a wonderful book, filled with dead-on dialogue, ridiculous but mesmerizing action sequences, and a cliffhanger to end all cliffhangers.  The sheer quality of this first issue, as a first issue, is like checking off a how-to-write-a-good-first-issue checklist, and yet the flow of the tale is anything but rote.  The style is emphatically derived from Kirkman’s own signature sensibilities, with brutal though brief action sequences interspersed with talking-heads a la any given Kevin Smith or other 90’s Generation X screenplay.  I can’t say whether this is purposeful or just Brown’s flavor being naturally akin to Kirkman’s, but either way, it’s the best way to begin the book, as its built-in readership will expect and definitely want the Kirkman savoir faire, at least to kick things off.  And regardless, Brown manages to ape Brit’s past artistic essence without it seeming to in fact be derivative.  It’s like having your cake and wanting to eat it, too!

As for Cliff Rathburn, not much needs to be said about this Renaissance man that hasn’t been shouted out to fandom inside a dozen reviews before.  For anyone unfamiliar with his stuff, it’s somewhere between Frank Cho and Tony Moore: he’s a classic cartoonist with a flair for both wild composition and fluid, liquid strokes, for detail and sparseness in equal measure.  His coloring in Brit is the new side of him, newly revealed here, but you wouldn’t know it to ogle his pages; the color is as complimentary and bolstering as anything offered by industry professionals.  Or in other words: this book looks fan-friggin’-tastic.  It’s exactly what you’ve come expect from a Kirkman-overseen comic as published via Image.

So fans of the original one-shots rejoice, and then rest easy: Brit is here and he’s being treated like a king.  I can’t wait to see where this book is going, and I’m thrilled to know a writer as skilled as Brown is getting some upfront, mainstream exposure.  The story that gets this series started is a great one, too, both plot-wise and character-wise, and the ending should have absolutely everyone that gives this first issue a shot racing back for round two.  And hey, it’s already been promised that next issue’s ending is going to trump this one’s.  How’s that for incentive?