I like a good war story, whether it's the realistic and brutal World War II action of Band of Brothers or the science-fiction parables of Heinlein's Starship Troopers. Assembly falls into the latter camp, a story of a future run by a totalitarian state locked in war with other nebulously-defined enemies. One could definitely see a cautionary tale about modern American politics in Assembly, but one could also just as easily read it as a standard coming of age story of two sisters trying to survive a harsh society surrounded by war. In terms of creating the society and characters, Jackson does a great job, but on the all-important war sequences, the art lets me down, turning into a somewhat confusing blur of motion.
Jackson does a very good job of establishing the world of Assembly early on. Giant mechanized battlesuits roaming a landscape made up of rain-soaked, damaged buildings give the impression of a warzone, and I loved seeing the poverty level of Elaine and Shon's lives contrasted with the high-tech trappings of Shon's school or the military technology that surrounds her. This visual shortcut, more than anything else in the script, effectively lets the reader know what the priorities of this government are and where their money and attention goes. In fact, Jackson's script is sometimes a little heavy-handed in portraying the evil nature of the government, particularly with the biased newscasts that make the citizens look stupid for not catching on, and the subtler storytelling of the visuals is far more effective.
If only Jackson's visual storytelling skill extended to the action sequences. While there are some beautiful, detailed spreads featuring the machines, including the two-page spread in issue two that shows Elaine's workplace, when the mecha move into action the story starts to become a bit confused. Jackson may be trying to emulate the latest trend in military fiction, where the chaos of battle is shown by means of constantly moving cameras and a sense that your opponent is everywhere, but it doesn't quite carry across, and so the battle scenes between government mecha pilots and invading forces just look like blurs of black and gray, with little context to the action. It isn't until issue two, for example, that I even realized what had happened at the end of issue one, because we didn't see Shon's reaction until issue two.
While the action sequences are overly confusing, though, the rest of the story drew me in. It's pretty obvious from the beginning that Elaine knows something Shon doesn't, so there's not a big shock when Elaine reveals the truth in issue two, but it's very interesting when Shon follows her career path even knowing this truth. There's a definite air of tragedy to Shon's story, as she retains an innocent, hopeful quality even in this world, and a trust in the military and the government that is obviously not warranted. It's pretty easy to predict that despite her medic status, she'll be thrust into the realities of war soon enough, and that should make for some interesting conflict.
Assembly is an intriguing science-fiction war comic with definite parallels to real world politics. It's an ambitious story that doesn't quite hit its mark yet, due in no small part to some confusing action sequences, but which shows potential to become an interesting commentary on war and politics as well as a good character-driven piece.
