The Bum’s Rush #17

Breach Contained … Unfortunately

There’s a comic book that I’ve talked about (or at least mentioned) several times in this column. It’s called Breach, published by DC Comics, and it’s one of my favorite new series of the year. At least it was. A few weeks ago it was cancelled and the final issue, number 11, is scheduled to ship in November. I thought I’d take this column and talk about this comic book, why it was such a favorite of mine and why I’m going to miss it. (Click images to see full size in a new window)

In 1983 Major Tim Zanetti tucked his son into bed, kissed his wife goodbye and headed out to work. His job? Head of security for the super-secret Project: Otherside, an experiment that was supposed to open doors into other dimensions. Unfortunately something went terribly wrong and the entire project was destroyed when the dimensional breach they had opened became unstable. Everything surrounding the breach was torn apart and sucked into the void before the portal itself erupted in a massive explosion.

Cut to twenty years later and Zanetti, who was found alive (but somehow changed) mere hours after the explosion, is suspended in comatose state within the confines of the still-active Project: Otherside. The arrival of a dark and sinister being in Africa triggers a reaction inside Zanetti who explodes violently from his confinement. After a time Zanetti is informed of his condition by Dr. Campbell Chambers. Zanetti’s body now emits a type of dimensional distortion effect that means death to anyone who were to touch him without proper shielding. In essence, Zanetti’s touch can kill.

As Zanetti struggles to come to grips with his amazing and terrible powers he is plagued by visions of twisted alien visitors that have begun to arrive on Earth. These beings are invaders from the dimension that Project: Otherside tore a doorway into. There is nothing benevolent about their presence, they merely seek to destroy the “weak things” (i.e. humanity) and teach their ways to Zanetti, whom they call kin. Over the course of the first several issues of the serious Zanetti’s mental limits are pushed to the breaking point by powers he cannot comprehend, a lost family that no one seems interested in helping him find, and a alien malevolent presence in his mind that urges him to kill.

Sounds cool doesn’t it? That is the story behind Breach and it’s only part of the reason I love reading the book on a monthly basis. Writer Bob Harras weaves an unbelievable tale populated by some of the most real and honest characters you’ll probably find in a modern day mainstream superhero (though I hesitate to say “superhero” when it has it’s foot firmly planted in the pure science-fiction genre) comic. From the cursed Major Zanetti, always teetering on the edge of a breakdown, to his former best friend who is now married to Zanetti’s widow and continually lies to Zanetti for his own selfish reasons (though it’s hard not to sympathize with the guy). There’s also Zanetti’s son who has no idea that the man in the containment suit who has saved his life twice is actually his father, but feels a strong connection to him nonetheless. And of course the core members of Project: Otherside, Dr.’s Paul and Campbell Chambers, Zanetti’s only real friends since his emergence from the coma, as well as the take-no-crap military man assigned to the project, Captain Yoshiba. All of these characters feel like real people. All have their flaws, their fears and insecurities and certainly none of them could be called truly heroic. They are just real people reacting to an extremely bizarre, dangerous and complicated situation. And man, the bad guys are scary as all hell, frequently killing wherever they go, mutilating whole families of innocents in their quest to dominate the world they’ve arrived in.

Maybe the bad guys wouldn’t even be half as scary without the extremely talented Marcos Martin, who presents the aliens as bizarre and frighteningly twisted versions of the human hosts they have possessed. Martin knows how to tell a story and portrays the drama and emotion in a way that appears almost effortless. At the same time he can create scenes of mind-blowing action, spine-chilling terror and gore, and fantastic sci-fi spectacles with the same seeming ease.

So maybe now you see why I love this book. It’s got a great story, intriguing characters and some of the most impressive art on the rack today. Everything a great story needs.

Except one thing – readers.

There simply aren’t enough people reading comics who are willing to give new books a chance. I’ve talked about this before in a previous Bum’s Rush article.  This mostly effects new books put out by the big two publishers, Marvel and DC, who require a book to sell a certain number of units to be considered successful. The smaller companies are able to publish and maintain new books more easily than the big two because their print runs don’t have to be quite as high.

There’s a mentality among the readership today that I don’t quite understand. It’s the “wait-for-the-trade” mentality. Rather than shelling out a few more bucks to try out a new series some readers will merely wait for the book to be collected into a trade paperback. I can understand this line of thought when it comes to mini-series. It’s a finite number of issues and chances are that when the book is over and the publisher is behind the book it will be collected together. But when a new series comes out, one that is not an X or Super or Bat or Spider-something, well the chances of the book surviving long enough to be collected into a trade depend heavily upon how many people show an interest in the book from the onset.

It’s too late for Breach. It’s also too late for another, recently announced casualty of low sales, Joe Casey’s The Intimates. But it’s not too late for the next new series that comes out. Don’t wait for the trade. Give a new comic a chance. Don’t have the money? Ditch one of your X-Men books. Ditch one of your Batman books. I can guarantee you that those books will be collected into a trade sooner or later. But that new comic might not be so lucky.

So, go ahead and do it. Give a new book a chance. If not for yourself then do it for me. You love me right? Do you really want to see me go through this again?

Quick Bits

                       
Click images to see full size in a new window

1. Not a lot of Quick Bits this week …
2. The Dark Horse Comic Solicits came out last week and the first issue of Perhapanauts (Todd Dezago and Craig Rousseau) was featured.
3. DC Solicits should be out on Monday afternoon, you can check here.
4. Marvel Solicits will probably follow on Tuesday.
5. Speaking of DC Solicits … check out the awesome Jim Lee cover for Infinite Crisis #2!
6. Expect a whole slew of new titles coming out of DC when (and just before) the Infinite Crisis mini-series wraps up.
7. And we’re already seeing a bunch of new books coming out of Marvel following the aftermath of their own universe-shattering mini-series House Of M.
8. Wanna see what I’d look like as a Muppet? Check it out here.
    

NEXT WEEK: You think if anyone knew it’d be me right? Wrong.

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