While an online debate slowly burns about which creator is responsible for the format, the original graphic novel is slowly growing in popularity in the North American comics industry as a favored and viable medium to tell a story. DC's started offering some strong examples -- Orbiter comes to mind -- and Oni Press's new line of OGNs has been great across the board. AiT/PlanetLar is a publisher devoted to the original graphic novel format. Of course, I never expected an independent effort like this one to live up to the high standards set up for those outfits. But that's exactly what's happened.
At the age of three, Mark was adopted by the U.S. government and enrolled in its Atom program. Atom is the secret agency every conspiracy nut dreams about. It's not only an intelligence agency, but it's a self-contained community. Just as its members are essentially born into Atom, they die as a part of the organization as well. But Mark doesn't want that. He wants to live free, to experience ideas and people that have been kept from him throughout his 21 years. And he's come up with a plan... a plan to escape. The question is how long he'll be able to maintain his freedom before Atom comes to take him home.
Heufemann's artwork is completely surprisingly and thoroughly impressive. It puts one in mind of the styles of such artists as Sean (Sleeper) Phillips, Klaus (Batman: Death and the Maidens Janson and Pia (Y: The Last Man) Guerra. His simple style captures a strong sense of reality, and his brief depiction of Atom's S.H.I.E.L.D.-inspired headquarters is awe-inspiring. He conveys its immense size by not showing the reader its entirety.
The colors here are especially strong as well. Horne's colors reinforce a dark, quiet and tense mood throughout the book, especially in those scenes set in the urban landscape in which Mark tries to lose himself after his first avenue of freedom is denied him. Of course, the high production values here also make for an impressive look to the project. I love the textured cover design, and the slick, high quality of the paper really makes this book look like what it is from cover to cover: professional.
Neighly takes Mark in and out of the lives of some grounded and well-realized characters. They're only seen rather briefly, really, but the dialogue rings so true and gives the reader such a strong sense of who they are that one might be lulled into thinking they're bigger parts of the story than they actually are.
The greatest strength of this book is its timing, though I doubt it coincidental. The subtle backdrop for this book is the right-wing political atmosphere in the United States in the wake of Bush's "election" and the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Atom isn't just an homage to S.H.I.E.L.D.; it symbolizes America as a whole. It's about the establishment's drive to get everyone in line, to limit expression and ideas, to limit freedoms. It's no coincidence that Mark hides among the kind of hard-working, good-hearted Americans who have become the victims of an ugly economy.
