I honestly didn't know what to expect from Demo, though I was expecting strong storytelling. That it was a new Brian Wood project from AiT/Planet Lar was enough information for me to add it to my pull list. Since I didn't seek out the advance promotional material for the book, I found something of a surprise in these pages. What didn't surprise me, though, were the strong characterization and edgier, rebellious tone of the story, both trademarks of the writer's efforts. Wood brings genre storytelling together with dark but touching story about escaping the expectations of others.
Marie lives in Suburban America with her overbearing, judgmental mother, and she's had enough with the medical and emotional blackmail. She and her boyfriend, Mike, have their sights set on a life in New York City, but as they drive there, there's an obstacle they have to overcome. When Marie goes off her meds, bad things happen. Her body begins to turn against itself, and it scares the Hell out of her loving but overwhelmed new partner in life.
Becky Cloonan's artwork on this book strikes me as the kind of thing one might expect from Klaus (Batman: Death and the Maidens) Janson... had he grown up in Japan. There's a gritty, manga-esque quality to the visuals here that captures the dichotomous notions of childhood and the loss of innocence, of hope and despair that are at the heart of the story. Her work here also reminds me of Chynna (Blue Monday) Clugston-Major's Amerimanga stuff, but with more of an edge. She brings remarkable depth and texture to the black-and-white format, and I love how she drops the backgrounds so she can convey the more introspective and personal moments in the story.
One of the interesting things about the art for this series as a whole is that Cloonan will be adapting her style for each chapter, employing a slightly different style each time. It's easy to see that shift in the second-issue preview pages in the back of this book. It reminds me of the approach Warren Ellis is taking with Global Frequency, but in the case of Demo, one artist is handling the differences on her own instead of a team of 12.
It's ridiculously easy to see ourselves in Marie. We've all felt oppressed and abused by our parents, and we've all wanted to run away. Most of us were lucky enough to be simply deluded, too stupid to realize that we had people who cared for us whose caring we perceived as intrusions. Marie's escape is a righteous thing. She's not running to New York City. She's trying to be true to herself, to return to the person she was meant to be, a person that her mother desperately tried to bury. It gets the reader on Marie's side immediately, and it makes for a heartening tale.
I rather enjoyed the initial misdirection in the script. We think we have Marie pegged. We think we're looking at a bipolar personality, at Marie's denial of her problems. The twist is a powerful one. This is the kind of thing I wish we were seeing in Marvel's New Mutants or NYX. Demo offers a more personal and original take on similar ideas.
