Broken Frontier

The plot thickens as the "talents" Nicholas received from 150 dead people run headlong into a conspiracy that’s about to boil over.

Nicholas Dane has killers hot on his trail. Everyone he’s come in contact with since the plane crash that bequeathed him with the talents and abilities of every other passenger who died has been killed themselves or left hovering near death. Payne and Abel, two sociopath assassins, have been tracking him from one locale to another. Accompanying them is Krause, who works for a shadowy, behind-the-scenes organization simply known as "The Cardinals." That plane crash wasn’t supposed to happen. It upset "The Balance," and Nicholas’ "mission" since he received his "gift" is to complete the unfinished business of those who were killed, in order to restore it. For his part, Krause, though he’s had no success in finding Nicholas, is slowly becoming aware of how Nicholas is able to do what he does, and connects even more dots in this strange tale after Nicholas pays a visit to the girlfriend of Marcus Small, a boxer killed in the crash. But what Krause doesn’t yet know is that one of those dots he’s connecting is himself.

Though BOOM! Studios hypes Talent as a story in the vein of Lost, the only thing it has in common with that show is the plane crash at the beginning. Rather, it’s more a conspiracy thriller with the sort of vibe found in Human Target or any of the dark, moody dramas that crop up on BBC America from time to time. And when you really get down to it, virtually every element in Talent is something we’ve seen before. The unlikely hero with a great mission suddenly thrust upon him. The "angel" who guides him through the mission and gives it meaning. The ruthless killers on his trail. The mysterious cabal of nogoodniks pulling strings behind the scenes. The flawed but worthy innocents who benefit from the hero’s mission. It could all read like trite pastiche, but writers Christopher Golden and Tom Sniegoski pull it together into a mini-series that gets more entertaining with each issue. This third issue has a lot of work to do in terms of pushing the story forward while tying some of the plot threads together, and Golden and Sniegoski achieve both without dragging the steady but suspenseful rhythm they’ve established in previous installments. And while there’s a great deal of talking to be done in order to make Talent’s conspiracy thriller and supernatural elements mesh together, for the most part the dialogue is well-executed and natural sounding, despite all the explication and theorizing. Nicholas himself is more a type than a real character, but given that he’s channeling not just the talents but also the personalities that owned them, this is to be expected. Fortunately, Golden and Sniegoski use their characterization chops on Payne, Abel, and Krause, who, as far as I’m concerned, have stolen the show.

Paul Azaceta’s art is thoroughly in the crime fiction vein, and will easily bring comparisons to Sean Phillips and Michael Lark. Stylistically, he’s not there yet, but there’s much to like about his eye and the rough edged line work that pulls the reader into the story. He’s playing on a tight grid, with lots of small panels, so the beats he hits have to be just right. He hits them with a well-developed sense of sequential storytelling and an even better talent for capturing emotional reaction. Lastly, though this issue packs a lot of dialogue, one can re-read it without the words, just the faces, and still understand its narrative direction, as well as a lot of subtext that the writers have (wisely) left to the artist.

Yet another solidly entertaining and well-crafted offering from BOOM! Studios, Talent gets better with each issue.