I was quite impressed with book one of The Changers, which is one of the few true science-fiction comics to be found in the market today, and Daniels wraps up his imaginative story in fine fashion with Book Two. The Changers is not a shoot-em-up action science-fiction book, which is more common in comics, but is instead the sort of sociological, thinking science-fiction that defined the term in the book market. It focuses in on one of the common science-fiction elements, that of time travel, but it's an exploration of the philosophical implications of time travel rather than having to stop robots from taking over the future or something along those lines.
Though Changers is based on a pair of travellers from a far-flung future, Daniels makes it very approachable by making the time-displaced protagonists approachable and real. Though Daniels doesn't skimp on the futuristic development of technology and society, he keeps the leads from being aliens, instead writing them as people who can blend in with the 20th century. The result is some character interplay that is similar to that you'd find in a slice-of-life book, especially as it relates to the relationship between Bisso and Shelley, which becomes very important as the story goes on.
Bisso and Geaza are struggling with problems that none of us has directly experienced, but they have corollaries to problems that we can imagine. The Changers is an exploration of faith as much as it is anything else, and it's shown by Geaza's translation of the story into a fantasy story for Shelley that it has universal applications. The question they face is whether or not to continue their mission so that the future, hundreds of thousands of years later, will be changed. But it is fairly easy to empathize anyway, because the notion of having such responsibility, and being unable to know how the consequences will work out until you've made your choice, is something universal. Everyone has wondered during their life what might have happened if they'd done things differently, or whether the choices they've made have gotten them where they want to be.
While the book is approachable and universal, though, that doesn't mean it lacks imagination or action. Oscar's transformation, and the brutal results of his regression, are fairly horrifying and suspenseful, and the confrontation between Geaza and Bisso over what to do also takes on a rather physical tone eventually. In terms of imagination, though Daniels has set his story in the modern day, he clearly has plenty of ideas about the future where Geaza and Bisso come from. The essays that serve as chapter breaks examine the notions of animal evolution and anthropomorphism and a life-altering (actually species-altering) event, both of which serve as sort of short story looks into the world of the future. As fascinating as The Changers is, I think that stories set in this future could be every bit as entertaining if not moreso, because Daniels clearly has a wildly imaginative and unusual world in his head where these characters come from.
If The Changers has a weak spot, it is in the artwork, but it's a minor point at best. Overall, Daniels's art style is one that I like, with expressive characters and a style that reminds me somewhat of Tim Levins. He's got a nice attention to detail in the backgrounds as well, and his rather horrific take on the mutating Oscar serves him well in terms of bringing the darker side of the story out. My only quibble, and it turns out to be fairly significant, is the designs of Geaza and Bisso, who look inhuman rather than simply of a minority race, and who more importantly are damn near impossible to tell apart, which makes for confusion in some of the sequences. Thankfully, the context usually makes the exchanges clear, and in general The Changers is a fascinating bit of science-fiction built on solid characterization and very intriguing ideas.
