The Seeds of Destruction

Feels like the kid summed up the human condition rather neatly.

The Seeds was originally going to be a 4-issue mini-series published through Dark Horse's Berger Books line. Ann Nocenti and David Aja got two issues out, and then it just dropped off the radar. Finally, they released a collection of what would have been all 4 issues last winter.

So, the Earth's on the verge of total collapse. Some people still live in crowded cities, others have gone beyond the wall, abandoning phones and internet and whatnot to scratch out whatever existence they can. Probably the main character is Astra, your typical reporter in fiction who wants to do hard-hitting journalism, but has to give her editor the cheap sensationalist crap that gets views, or clicks, or whatever. And what Astra finds that might do both is Lola and Race. 

Lola's a young woman in a wheelchair. Race is a guy she finds herself growing fond of. Race is also part of a quartet of aliens living out beyond the wall. They're here because someone - it's never revealed who - is pretty sure Earth is about to go belly up. Their job is to gather as many seeds as possible for the Celestial Seed Bank. They aren't conquerors, or grand beings with plans of creating some Eden, so much as they're contractors, hired and sent to do a job. Race and one of the others, Sandy, both note at different times most planets they're sent to haven't gotten past single-celled life, so this was actually sort of a nice assignment.

 

A lot of the book is about choices, what people are going to decide is important. Is Race important enough to Lola to go beyond the wall? Is she important enough to him to go against his team's leader, who is clearly enjoying Earth a little too much. Is the opportunity to write the stories she wants worth Astra outing Lola as the one sleeping with an alien? Her boss argues yes, the public has a right to know there might be alien babies running around, but her boss also admitted that when she was going to write an article about a vampire cult, she created it herself. Basically, tell the lie hard enough it becomes truth.

There are a couple of other bits Nocenti adds in to round it out. A farmer wondering why his bees abandoned their hives, and feeling really bad about having to kill his prize sow. There are also two scientists somewhere, each of them with different ideas about what's going to save the planet, technology or nature. Which feels like a false dichotomy, since you can presumably use technology to help nature along. Technology might help you clear a field of invasive species so you could restore a native prairie full of wildflowers for the bees, for example.

I think Aja handles all the art and color work himself. The book sticks to a black/green-gray scheme. Which allows for high-contrast at times, but also can give things a sickly look. You probably wouldn't think a plant that shade of green was doing very well if you saw it. But it works. Even just the absence of the shadows works. Like when Astra's able to enlarge a photo of some idiot billionaire whose spaceship crashed on Enceladus, and she can somehow make out there's a plant sprouting in his eye socket inside his helmet. Cue Jeff Goldbloom "life finds a way."

 

He uses a pretty 9-panel grid most of the time. In some cases it's only one or two rows of 3 panels, and then a larger panel takes up the other third or two-thirds of the page. It makes things feel very restricted, I guess. Everything is caught in their own little boxes. Disconnected from larger things, maybe. There's a recurring motif of hexagonal grids. Beehives, insect wings, chain link fences, people's tattoos. I don't know what that means. Life falls into particular ordered patterns, and attempts to circumvent that are futile? Even if everyone is trying to isolate themselves, they still are connected? Trying to pretend nothing we do has an impact, and nothing else can impact us is a ludicrous notion? The things some people put stock in are incredibly fragile, while things considered archaic are more resilient than we expect?

I'm just spitballing, I don't really know. But I enjoy trying to figure it out.

What I Bought 9/12/2018

I had plans to come up with something for Wednesday, but consecutive 11+ hours days on the road took most of the initiative out of me. For today, we have a couple of books from this week, one that is wrapping up its opening arc, and the other is just halfway through.

Domino #6, by Gail Simone (writer), David Baldeon (artist), Jesus Arbutov (color artist), Clayton Cowles (letterer) - When you put them altogether there on the cover, it sure looks like Domino has never had a decent costume in her life. I'd almost vote for the one with the shoulder pads and the helmet/faceguard, just because it looks like its designed to handle being shot at.

Domino has a final showdown with Topaz. Desmond/Prototype didn't survive that punch in the head from Outlaw, so now hurting Domino is all the crazy redhead has left. But Domino is able to control her powers enough Topaz can't use them against her, and then Outlaw and Diamondback hit the angry lady with a Quinjet, and Domino pumps 12 bullets into, to Shang-Chi's disappointment. We can't all spend our time moping about being forced on the path of violence, Shang.

I don't know if I'm used to villains getting away to be constant pains in the rear or what, but this felt vaguely anticlimactic. Maybe the point was for Domino to have gained enough control that Topaz couldn't mess with her powers, which required getting over being afraid of the fact the lady could mess with her powers. Once that happened, where she would have luck back on her side, Topaz really has no chance. The part where she describes herself as a Disney princess was an odd choice of metaphor. It's tossed into the aftermath that Prototype had planted a tracker on Domino at some point. When, I have no idea. I don't recall him getting close enough to do that at any point before he was already showing wherever she was.

 The fight scene is drawn well, lot of energy to it, impressive blur lines for punches, people making exertion faces rather than looking totally calm when they're trying to punch someone's head off. It's not reinventing the wheel, but it works. There is a scene early in the book I'm not quite sure of. We see Outlaw wheeling Diamondback into a hospital, telling her she was lucky to be alive. After a confrontation with a bigoted doctor, the two ladies call Adelbert for news of Domino, but now they're outside the hospital and getting into a car. I'm not sure if I'm meant to assume there was a gap in there where Diamondback got treated for her stab wound, or if Outlaw was supposed to be wheeling her out of the hospital at the beginning of the whole thing and Baldeon got it backwards.

Other than that, the artwork was good, and I like how Arubtov incorporates the colors of the lights of Hong Kong into the backdrop of Domino and Topaz' fight. Using the reds and blues, mostly reds, for anger or focus of the two characters. Topaz trying to pick herself up with dull yellows behind her, she's not up to a full head of steam yet, while Domino's in front of bright reds, because she's pretty much resigned to ending Topaz, because that's what it will take.

I guess we'll see if Simone does something with this in subsequent issues, brings back some remnant of the program that experimented on her. It seems odd to bring all this in just to put it in the trash six issues later.

The Seeds #2, by Ann Nocenti (writer), David Aja (artist) - Nooo, not the turtles!

Rosa travels into the Zone to be with her alien boyfriend, Race, and his expedition. The reporter, Astra, also travels into the Zone to find proof of these aliens, but is suspicious about how easily she got though the checkpoints. She has a run-in with the more crazy member of Race's expedition, but escapes for the time being. Someone is planning to drop something in the Zone, but whether they're trying to kill bees, people, or maybe the aliens I'm not clear on. Probably people. And there's the subplot about the farmer being sad he had to kill one of his hogs for food.

There's a page about some rich guy who tries to travel to another planet and it's gone catastrophically wrong, but the video feed from his spaceship is still active, so everyone can see him freaking out. I chuckled at that. And the part where the one alien learns the others all call him "Nutwad", when they aren't calling him "Gasbag". Sometimes you just don't like your coworkers.

Through most of the issue, there's a turtle making its way across the landscape, with those plastic soda can holders around one leg. It makes its way past Lola at one point and she pauses from turning a rotten apple into a bong long enough to remove the plastic ring. Which feels significant someone, bothering to stop to help this turtle which, if the planet is well and truly fucked, then so is the turtle. Maybe I'm just grasping.

The concept of making up a story and then making it come true pops up again, but I'm not sure how that ties in. Unless the point is you can make up most any story about people and it could eventually be true. It's possible for you to imagine it, so it's possible people would do it, even if they aren't at that moment. The story gives them the idea? Again, I don't know. If the GreenTech folks are trying to kill people, why? What's there to gain? Same delusions of grandeur as the rich idiot floating in space?

Aja continues to work mostly in 9 or 7-panel grids. Mostly focuses panels on small areas. A single character, or the turtle, or the rusted remains of an old car. Gives a feel for the place where things are happening. He does that bit where Astra is taking pictures and one row of panels are three consecutive pictures she's taking as she pans across someone's trailer and front yard. There are a couple of pages of switching back and for between the farmer preparing to kill the hog, and Nutwad sneaking up on Astra. The potential victims both oblivious, and their would-be killers telling themselves different lies for it to work in their minds.

What I Bought 8/5/2018

A venture uptown last weekend gave me a chance to find the two books that came out last week I wanted. Hooray for good fortune. And it is good fortune, because I like both these comics!

Giant Days #41, by John Allison (writer), Maz Sarin (artist), Whitney Cogar (colorist), Jim Campbell (letterer) - Poor Tim Allen, those Hollywood libruls made him replace Wilson with an angry British lady in his Home Improvement reboot. Don't worry, there is no Home Improvement reboot. Although watching Susan try to flick cigs into Tim's mower's gas tank might be worth it.

Susan fears she has lost her edge for confrontation. Esther is trying to keep Daisy from having to interact with Ingrid. Esther is also slightly discomfited to see Nina hanging out with Ed is his tiny room. At the Halloween party, Esther and Susan get drunk and try to intimidate Ingrid, only for her to verbally eviscerate them until Daisy arrives and does the same to Ingrid. Considering Susan did not try to punch or stab Ingrid, I'm going to agree she's lost her edge. And Esther was practicing cultural appropriation with that geisha outfit, so she kind of deserved it.

I have the most horrible feeling the nude male model in the art class was Dean Thompson. Although the "Ubuntu" back tattoo seems out of place for him. Oh God, I just noticed the poster on the door of his room as Esther leaves Ed and Nina alone! It was Dean! Where's the bleach?!

I can't decide if the meeting in the park between Daisy and Ingrid was Ingrid being genuinely remorseful for her behavior in the art class, or some trick on her part to get Daisy back. I doubt Ingrid is actually smart enough to pull a stunt like that, but I can't rule it out. So many unpleasant theories this issue is bringing up in my mind. Well, I'm pretty sure I'm in a down cycle right now, so it's to be expected.

Scanning through the costumes at the party, there are two girls at the Halloween party dancing together as Ruby and Sapphire from Stephen Universe! I might almost have smiled at that. Or perhaps it was my stomach reacting to that Cajun burger last night (I'm typing this Sunday morning, after another weekend of questionable decisions with Alex). The montage of Susan and Esther's attempts to keep Daisy from having to see Ingrid was funny. "This supermarket smells of monkey nuts." But they're organic!

The Seeds #1, by Ann Nocenti and David Aja - Unless "Art Director" is some new title for a color artist, I think Aja handled that and the lettering himself.

There's a wall. it divides a city, into a place for people who want more technology and those who don't. There's a reporter, Astra, who wants to do a story on the non-tech side of the wall, but her editor won't approve it until she does one hyping some club that will supposedly let you experience death. Pfft, just go drive in Chicago, that'll take care of that for ya. There's a fellow named Race, possibly an alien, out collecting seeds from various species on the planet, because we're about to die. But Race is falling for a woman named Lola, and she might like him too. Except Astra's seen the face under his mask, and now she's on his trail for a story.

It's a quiet book so far, people talking and maybe trying to figure stuff out. So Aja spends a lot of panels on the stuff that makes up their lives. The plate of bugs they're eating, the contents of Asta's fridge, Gabrielle (Astra's editor), stubbing out a cig. The little things, motions, that people do as they go about their days. The first issue is 28 pages, and 14 of those are 9-panel grids. Half of the remaining pages are 7 panels, two rows of 3 panels, and one row that's just a single panel that stretches across the whole page. The larger panels are what Aja uses to establish the setting. What the wall looks like, topped with barbed wire and soldiers/cops/somebody patrolling with guns and gas masks, SAFE in big bold letters stamped on the side of their halftrack.

But everything stays in that grid pattern, ultimately. It does actually work very well for me in establishing the pace of things, in a way panel layouts usually don't. I'll read reviews of comics where the writer says, "So-and-so used {insert layout} to set a {insert pace description} to create. . ." and I almost never feel that way. I read most comics and I feel like I move through them at my pace. Fast if I'm skimming because something's happening I don't care about. Or I stop and linger over a panel if I'm hunting for background details or body language cues. But here, it actually works. The second-to-last page, as Nocenti and Aja build to Astra noticing Race's face worked really well. Panel of her sliding an arm into her coat. Next panel her lighting a cig. Next panel, Race and Lola moving away down the alley. Next panel, Astra's getting ready to take the cigarette out of her mouth to exhale smoke. It's just so obvious how short a span of time it all is that it really drives the deliberate nature of the thing home. I was surprised, maybe impressed, they didn't go for a bigger panel for the shot of Race's head. The zoom-in works just fine, but I'm conditioned to expect the artist gets more space for the big surprise, and they went against it.

Something that seemed relevant to me was the editor's speech about how, if you spread a lie or a myth long enough, people will make it come true. Her classmates insisted she slept around, even though she didn't, but everyone believed, and eventually she did. So if they say the club lets you experience death, maybe it will. But will it really be a brief experience? Also, her story doesn't touch on the idea of what the people who start the lie intend. Why did they want everyone to think she slept around? She brings up Roswell, that letting people think their were aliens gave the government cover for other projects they didn't want known. Maybe the idea was to present the truth in a manner no one would believe it, with a lie dressed up as the "real" truth others could use to dismiss the "lie".

There's a lot more here - there's a whole thread of a beekeeper bemoaning the loss of his queen bee I didn't mention earlier, and two birds on a wire - but it's only part one. I need to see more of this before I can figure out where exactly Nocenti and Aja are going with it.