Solo #3 is the first issue of the series that really lives up to the ideal, in my mind, being all the work of one writer/artist, and it is also the strongest issue of the series thus far. However, what struck me in reading it was that despite there being only one writer and artist, this still isn't quite a "solo" project, and a variety of colorists contribute to the stories, each one giving the story a different flavor as well. So Solo #3 winds up being not only a tribute to the unusual, amazing style of Paul Pope, but to the skills that colorists bring to the page. It also happens to feature OMAC, one of Kirby's better whacked-out DC concepts, although the best story of the bunch has nothing to do with the DC universe and everything to do with our own, more mundane world.
Paul Pope is the kind of artist who is perfect for this kind of project, because his style and the projects he chooses are something off the beaten path, and to see him truly cut loose to do whatever he wants it pretty much the perfect way in which to experience his work. The biography at the end of the issue (a nice touch in itself, actually, for Solo) quotes The Comics Journal as comparing Pope's work to Asian calligraphy in a way, and it's an apt comparison to make. Pope's work calls to mind a number of words, and those words tend to be things like "intricate" and "exaggerated" and, for some reason, "fluid." His art style contains a lot of detail built into the panels, but despite risking clutter in this arrangement, he always seems to get across instead complexity of purpose and clarity of storytelling.
Pope's style is one that can be applied to a variety of characters and genres as well. His most well-known works are science-fiction, but with a very humanistic element, and of the scattered work he has done on company-owned characters, what most stands out for me is how well his art suited Batman. In this issue of Solo, Pope covers stories ranging from slice-of-life to a urban superhero/horror, strange sci-fi/superhero and straight-up mythology/fantasy, and his style works perfectly for all of them. His art is distinctive, instantly recognizable, and yet flexible enough to be molded into all of these different genres.
It's difficult to pick a favorite story in this issue, because I thought they were all pretty good, but I think my favorite is probably "On This Corner," a quiet, intricate look at the life that goes on in and around a corner bar in New York City. It speaks to the life of its own that the city takes on, as Pope shows us several different characters moving in and out of a location, experiencing fairly mundane (and yet somehow meaningful) moments as night turns to morning. This story also features my favorite coloring of the bunch, as Jose Villarubia uses a splashy, bright, full color palette for the most part but emphasizes greens, blues and reds to heighten mood. Villarubia also handles the colors on "The Problem in Knossos," my other likely choice for favorite story, as Pope tells the tale of the Minotaur from a point of view that puts the sympathy away from the hero Theseus and instead serves to point up how deeply disturbing most of Greek mythology is if you really step back and try to find the good guy. Oftentimes, the good guy is the bad guy and there really isn't a real good guy to be found.
Solo allows the creators to flex their muscles outside the DC Universe, but all of the artists thus far have also chosen (perhaps with some editorial encouragement, perhaps not) to play around with DC's character library as well. Pope chooses two here, doing another tale of Batman and then a new story of OMAC, a Kirby concept that's up there on the weirdness meter with Kamandi. Both tales are fun, although played quite differently. The Batman tale, more of a Robin showcase, is a little more serious, a suspense piece combined with a psychological examination of the underpinnings of the Batman/Robin relationship, and the OMAC story is pure superhero energy. Even in this tale, Pope can't help but throw in some thoughtful elements, wondering about the nature of the future society in which OMAC lives, but the sheer joy to be found here is the way in which he tells a complete story of a science-fiction idea, blended with some terrific action and a quick shot origin of the kind you just don't find outside of Silver Age comics for the most part. Stewart provides the deliberately garish, Silver Age-y colors on OMAC, while James Jean provides subdued, moody colors for the Batman piece. Neither of them hit me in the same sweet spot as Villarubia's work on the issue, but they're both perfectly suited to the stories they worked on, and certainly the colors look great.
In amidst these tales, Pope contributes some love not just to the comics medium but the delivery system in which he first enjoyed it as a kid. "Life-Sized Monster Ghost" is a quick, fun little tale about all the junk kids used to order out of comic book ads with a note perfect, chuckle-inducing punchline, and the last panel of the book is a beautifully designed Superman vs. giant robot "Read More Comics!" ad that is begging to be used as a house ad (or even wider) in the future. Paul Pope clearly loves comics, and that love (combined with a lot of talent) is poured into this book and sure to engender a similar love from readers. 9/10
