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THE ESTABLISHMENT #5
"The Man From Nowhere"
Recommended (7/10)
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DC Comics/Wildstorm Productions
Writer: Ian Edginton
Artist: Charlie Adlard
Colors: Wildstorm FX
Letters: Sergio Garcia
Editor: Jeff Mariotte
Price: $2.50 US/$4.25 CAN |
With the start of the second arc of The Establishment, I still feel like we could use a better introduction to the team, and quite honestly, a little confusion lead me to believe we'd lost one of my favorite characters from the book. However, the overall stories and characters we do know still have my attention, and I think that Edginton and Adlard have done a terrific job of capturing what made The Authority special without simply aping The Authority. They have also done a really nice job of
conveying that The Establishment is a British team, playing up familiar story
elements like government interference or secrecy but with a decidedly British
twist to them.
We could use more of an
introduction to the various characters in the team, but that doesn't mean
Edginton and Adlard are keeping readers completely in the dark. The opening
sequences are wonderful visual indicators of the personalities that the various
team members have, and of course Jon Drake has gotten a great deal of
exploration as the leader of the team and interface with the British government.
I enjoyed seeing some of the more personal sides of the characters, such as
Scarlet's plan for a shopping expedition or the glimpse into Drake's private
life.
There's a lovely balance of
epic scale and smaller moments in this book. Seeing Drake standing amidst dozens
of monitor screens was a terrific scene, and the glimpse of a British flag on
Venus another very powerful and evocative image. I'm also quite intrigued by the
young girl who seems to be Charlie Arrows's granddaughter, and wondering where that story
will go, even if I thought it was a story referring to Jon Drake's granddaughter before I was corrected in email.
Charlie Adlard's artwork is
what really makes me sit up and take notice of the book, though. He handles a
variety of situations with equal ease. The shot of Venus is an amazing piece of
science-fiction artwork, the scenes with Drake in an alley a bit of gritty crime
and the interactions between Drake and Hacker the epitome of an office room
showdown. At the same time, he can handle lazy team meetings in relaxed
settings, or the strange and wonderful image of a British rocketship setting
down from space.
The Establishment was caught in the wake of The Monarchy's belly-flop onto the market, and seems to
have flown under the radar of a lot of people, which is a shame, because it's
really quite a good read.
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