We don't see new work from Matt (Rex Mantooth) Fraction nearly often enough, and this project is one I've been anticipating for some time. The story takes some time to build up a head of steam, but once it gets going, it's offers up a blend of action, zaniness and intellect that will not fail in its effort to entertain. Fraction's script style is a little more restrained than what we've seen before, but it's clearly in an effort to instill a sense of history and decorum in the characters. Sanders's art is sketchy in nature, but that quality serves to enhance the historical aspect of this piece of historical fiction. This book isn't what many will expect, but any story that casts Thomas Edison as one of the power-hungry villains is going to surprise its readers... and amuse them.
Samuel Clemens, AKA famed American writer Mark Twain, has a couple of problems. He's flat broke, and he longs to see world peace, but unlike others, he feels the path to peace is through a global stalemate among a group of superpower nations. The answers to Twain's problems reveal themselves in the form of one of his old acquaintances: inventor Nikola Tesla. After Tesla and his one-armed assistant Tim show Twain the ultimate invention and weapon, the writer sets out to create a bidding war for the technology. Unfortunately for them, tycoons J.P. Morgan and Andrew Carnegie -- joined by their scientific "muscle", Thomas Edison and Guglielmo Marconi, have other, far more nefarious plans in mind.
Sanders's artwork puts me in mind at times of the style of Terry (Strangers in Paradise) Moore, but I also see a strong Guy (B.P.R.D.) Davis influence at play in his line art and design sense. The pencils are quite loose here, and I wouldn't be surprised if the final art was reproduced from uninked boards. The action gets a bit muddled at the story's climax when the Lovecraftian monster erupts into the story, but that's confusion is fleeting. I love the design for Tesla's war machine, and the creature Edison captures during the course of the story is not only menacing but convincing in its level of detail and design.
The Five Fists is somewhat akin to Alan Moore's League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, with two important differences. First of all, instead of iconic fictional characters serving as the heroes and villains of the plot, real-life people re-interpreted in unreal ways are. And secondly, while Moore's effort was an action-oriented romp through the past, this is definitely far more comedic. Most of the humor stems from Twain's huckstering and contrasting it Tesla's bumbling brilliance.
I think what I enjoyed most about this book is that there aren't any real heroes until the final act. Twain's manipulations of the media and Tesla's refusal and inability to interact with others don't endear them to the reader, and that's not something I expected. They are the villains of their own story until the more diabolical plot of the other historical figures is finally revealed. 8/10
