I seriously have no idea what the hell I just read. Joe Kelly's storytelling style has often fallen into what I'd call the "Morrisonian" camp, which is to say that he's got bizarre concepts that seem like they could only have come out of a weekend-long drug haze. Unfortunately, while Morrison can usually carry off these types of ideas with a style that is entertaining even as it is confusing, Kelly's stories tend to land merely in the confusing camp, and Enginehead is no different. With the exception of Tin and Professor Hamilton, I don't know who any of these characters are, and Kelly doesn't go to any great lengths to introduce them, or to clear up why they're being called together. On the positive side, Ted McKeever's work here is excellent, maintaining the gritty, unusual style that is very much an acquired taste but with a more polished, accessible spin put on it by Chris Chuckry's gorgeous color work.
Given that the focus of this book is on industrial characters and technology, it seems strange that Kelly has decided to write the book in an obtuse, dreamlike style. A more clear introduction to the characters, or indeed to the core concept of the book, would have gone a long way toward gaining my interest, but instead we get unclear character relationships (Ford Corrado and Grimes seem to switch dominance in the relationship with every panel), bizarre characters that pop up out of nowhere (just what the hell is up with the cyborg monkey thing?) and a "gathering the team" plot that at least avoids cliche, but it does it by making no sense whatsoever. Granted, the person behind creating "Enginehead" is clearly insane, but that doesn't mean the reader should have to be to make sense of what's going on.
While this style doesn't really work for the book in terms of writing, though, it is an ideal match for Ted McKeever's unusual style. McKeever has always excelled at weird industrial technology with a bit of a spiritual side, and that's exactly what Enginehead is all about. McKeever's bizarre anatomy for the people doesn't seem at all at odds with Kelly's bizarre script, and his visuals for Tin, Enginehead and Greasemonkey are all very nice. McKeever's work has a tendency to be a little cluttered, a little unclear, but that isn't the case here, as the whole thing has a more rigid line than I'm used to from McKeever, which may have something to do with Chuckry's rich colors.
Kelly has made an unusual choice to make the Mechanic, a clearly insane genius behind creating Enginehead, the narrator of the project. The result is an unreliable, almost stream of consciousness style of narration that gives the book a weird atmosphere but also, unfortunately, makes it less than accessible. It's possible, even likely, that some of these characters come from Kelly's Superman run, but given that this project seems pretty far from what your average Superfan would want, I think Kelly could have done a better job of introducing the various characters, rather than just focusing on Ford Corrado, whose role as failed criminal could have been summed up in far less pages.
Enginehead is a surreal book, and I'll be the first to admit that I don't always "get" such books. Fans of such bizarre fare as Automatic Kafka and Stray Toasters might give this one a shot, as it seems to be a technological dream/fantasy of the same stripe. Those who might be drawn in because it features Superman's Emil Hamilton or Tin from the Metal Men, however, will find this to be a strange, incomprehensible read, albeit one with nice artwork.
