Imagine what might happen if you combined the weird world elements of Planetary with the widescreen approach of The Authority and then took out all of the super-hero elements. What's left is Global Frequency, probably the most exciting new book from Warren Ellis in a good long time. Global Frequency plays out like an action movie for smart people, mixing a pseudo-scientific threat with a benevolent conspiracy organization, and Ellis throws in a few explosions and car chases for good measure. And though the art team on the book will rotate with each issue, Garry Leach was definitely the right choice to launch with, bringing Ellis's vividly imagined threat and agents of defense to life.
Ellis has always been great with the high concept; he's got more ideas in his head than he'll ever be able to use, if his various blog entries and email lists are any indication. Global Frequency has a great high concept, an organization of 1,001 people across the world who put to use their own unique skills in service to a mysterious woman who has created this underground rescue agency to protect the world from various threats. On page two, the reader is drawn right into this world, as a man approaches a car accident and pushes a button on a high-tech looking cell phone, and it's like a pure shot of secret agent cool.
Secret agents work for governments, though, and that's the brilliance of Global Frequency; they don't work for any particular government, they work for the good of the world. It has elements of many genres, including techno-thriller, espionage, conspiracy, straight action and even a little bit of super-hero, with the notion of secret identities and costumes/uniforms. In a medium which often contains a lot of the familiar, Global Frequency is something new. It is also definitely cool, and impressively action-packed and tense even though much of the issue is devoted to explaining the scientific basis of the threat and talking out how to handle it.
Though the exposition and characterization shouldn't be ignored, this first issue also has a fair amount of action, and Garry Leach does a terrific job of making it fast-paced and exciting. The car chase through San Francisco is fantastic, and the work that Leach and colorist David Baron do on the eruption of Janos Voydan's energy spells really gets across the weirdness, unpredictability and danger that he has to offer. The book is predicated on a lot of different normal people in relatively normal clothes, surrounded by a world that could be our own, and Leach gives it that genuine feel as well.
It's pretty clear that Global Frequency has a lot of potential, and I'm already disappointed that there are only eleven more issues to go. There's an impressive economy of storytelling at work in this first issue, as Ellis introduces a number of intriguing characters, the central concept and a threat, and solves it all inside of this issue. It's self-contained, but it's so good that I can't wait to see what's coming next, even without a cliffhanger ending.
