I Reads You Review: The Rising #0

RADICAL PUBLISHING

CREATOR/WRITER: E. Max Frye

ARTIST: J.P. Targete
LETTERS: John J. Hill
28pp, Color, $1.00 U.S.

The Rising is an upcoming science fiction miniseries from Radical Publishing. It is created and written by screenwriter E. Max Frye (who wrote an episode of HBO’s Band of Brothers) and artist J.P. Targete (who is apparently an illustrator and concept artist for Pixar’s John Carter of Mars film adaptation)

The Rising #0 is a $1.00-priced, 24-page introduction and launch of the upcoming miniseries. Based on how Radical has described the series, the story takes place in an indeterminate future, but that future takes place after years of war and economic chaos. When mankind was teetering on the verge of thermonuclear extinction, a militaristic alien force, the Drac, invades the planet. The release of a deadly virus apparently causes the Drac to destroy Earth’s defense forces and to massacre most of the human population. The Drac stabilize the planet, and some humans begin to see them as saviors, but those humans who do not rebel. One of them is Jarrett Jakes.

The Rising reminds me of the 1980s television science fiction franchise, V (which was revived by ABC in 2009). In a way, The Rising is standard alien armada invades Earth science fiction (think Independence Day), but its war on terror allusions give it relevance to current affairs. Perhaps, this series will be some metaphor or parable about imperialist ambitions, importing democracy on a gun barrel, and/or authoritarian and totalitarian governments. There is also a scene in this preview that reminds me of a scene in the Oscar-nominated film, Joyeux Noel, in which an Anglican bishop implores British soldiers to kill all Germans. The Rising has some good action scenes, so Frye may plan on it being as smart as it intends to be kick-ass.

As much as I like Frye’s concept and story, I am smitten with artist J.P. Targete’s lovely painted comic book art. First, his storytelling is as good as his composition, and as a painter creating comic book art, he is more in line with the artist I consider to be the gold standard in painting comic book art, Daniel Brereton, than he is with Alex Ross, whose work is beautiful, but is not really comic book art.

I look forward to the regular series, and I think readers who like science fiction comics would do well to look for this.

A-