By Rob Williams & D’Israeli (Titan Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-78276-009-2
Admit it. We’ve all pondered – and both comics and movies have explored in various tones and styles – a particularly thorny contemporary question: what happens when everybody wakes up with superpowers?
Collecting a rather witty riff on that quandary, this wickedly charming little fable from Rob Williams & Matt “D’Israeli†Brooker – first seen in Judge Dredd Megazine #340-345 at the end of 2013, then as a Titan Comics miniseries and now gathered into one scintillating colour hardback tome – takes the big question a step further by positing that on that day of astounding ascension everybody becomes a modern Prometheus but you…
After an effusive Introduction from Warren Ellis the strange tale of off-the-books plumber and inept gambler Michael Fisher begins one typical morning as he wakes up in Queens, NYC. He’s late for another call-out and stumbling almost unthinkingly straight into a great big bunch of complete insanity.
Narrowly escaping a thorough thumping from the Samoans he owes cash to, the harried divorcee arrives at his latest job just in time to see the elderly client rapidly de-age to squelchy nothingness and short-tempered boss Brian turn into a talking bear.
The metamorphic madness is everywhere. Giants, flaming men and snotty dragons are popping up every second but all Michael can think of is calling his ex Sarah to see if their son Josh is okay.
As the freaked-out military rapidly fail to control the situation, the truth slowly dawns. Not just New Yorkers but all of humanity have, in the space of an instant, become a race of shapeshifters, superhumans and worse.
Everyone, apparently, except Michael…
As madness and panic grip the world Mike naturally heads for a bar and after Brian joins him they watch the President’s emergency news conference. It would have gone much better if someone had been able to tell PotUS that his new power was broadcasting his actual thoughts in little cartoon thought balloons above his head…
When TV news reveals his son Josh’s school is on fire Brian urges Michael to get across the river and find his boy but the now-empowered Samoans almost catch him and it takes low cunning, a Midas touch and a cosmically aware cabbie to save the day…
As chaos and carnage grip the nation, deep in the Pentagon the President is visibly (to all and sundry) losing it as his fundamentalist Vice-President stridently argues that the power proliferation is a Heaven-sent blessing intended to help the Land of the Free smite all the world’s unbelievers.
Scottish Genomics Professor and resident scientific expert Dr. Tara McDonald has a more reasoned argument. The situation is a literal plague and uncontrolled super-abilities will destroy mankind unless they find a cure quickly. Already America’s enemies are gathering and nations all over Earth are marshalling their burgeoning meta-resources to settle age-old scores and eradicate contemporary rivals.
However before McDonald can even postulate a remedy they have to find someone who is immune to the catastrophic contagion…
Against incredible odds – which comprise both transformees and the increasingly hard-pressed, savagely dictatorial remnants of the civil authorities – and all his normal instincts Michael has made his way into Manhattan even as in Washington McDonald’s best efforts have yielded pitiful results.
Things really go south after a nuke detonates in Afghanistan and the Veep seizes command. The rabid Christian doesn’t want a cure and when the only man in existence without uncanny abilities becomes a minor media celebrity after rescuing his son from a New York school, the acting Commander-in-Chief’s zealots are only one of a number of ruthless factions instantly targeting the unfortunate Mr. Fisher…
Now it’s a race against time as deadly opponents from warring and friendly nations alike contend to control the unluckiest, most useless man in the world with the fate of humanity in the balance. Fate and science however have teamed up to deliver a big surprise for everybody…
Also included in this thought-provoking package is a gallery of guest pinups from Edmund Bagwell, Ben Oliver, Laurence Campbell, Brian Ching & Michael Atiyeh, Brendan McCarthy, Neil Googe, Dom Reardon, Henry Flint, Alison Sampson & Ruth Redmond, James Harren, Ale Aragon and Mark Buckingham & D’Israeli, plus a little learned discourse – stuffed with the illustrator’s behind-the-scenes sketches and working drawings – on ‘Ordinary Science’ from Evolutionary Biologist and comics fan JV Chamary (PhD)…
Devilishly clever, cruelly passionate, potently humane and devastatingly funny, this sharp treatise on the true meaning of power politics offers a uniquely British spin on the eternal fantastic flight of idle fantasy and will delight all lovers of he genre with a world-weary eye to the way life really works…
Ordinary is ™ and © 2014 Rob Williams and Matt Brooker. All rights reserved.