Whiteout volume 2: Melt – Definitive Edition

By Greg Rucka & Steve Lieber (Oni Press)
ISBN: 978-1-932664-71-3

In Whiteout Greg Rucka and Steve Lieber created a powerful and determined truth-seeker wedded to a ferociously evocative and utterly distinct milieu in which to prove her worth. The tale was one of the very best crime comics thrillers ever conceived.

Riding a wave of critical acclaim the writer and artist thankfully reunited for a searing sequel and Melt was released by Oni Press as a 4-issue miniseries from September 1999 to February 2000 before being gathered into a graphic novel compilation: still readily available as a lovely, enticing monochrome Definitive Edition.

This dark, bleak tale begins with a quick body-bestrewn history lesson about Antarctica, from the deadly duel between Scott and Amundsen and the following frantic scurry – and brief brush wars – by a myriad of nations hungry to possess the territory until, in 1961, Cold War caution and the threat of Mutually Assured Destruction resulted in the Antarctic Treaty.

This landmark pact resulted in the region being designated a neutral area reserved for purely scientific research: one where all military activity was strictly prohibited.

Antarctica is a bizarre â€œNeutral Zoneâ€ co-managed by the USA,Russia, Argentina, Chile, Britain, Australia and sundry other nations. Mineral and commercial exploitation is completely forbidden, military weapons and equipment are utterly proscribed and there are 400 guys to every girl. Antarctica is a place where all Man’s basest instincts are curtailed by official accord – or at least that’s the international party lineâ€¦

Since the treaty there has never been an act of war in Antarctica.

Officiallyâ€¦

US Marshal Carrie Stetko is recuperating from her injuries in New Zealand when the American embassy drags her in and a CIA spook named James tells her she’s going back to the ice – whether she wants to or not.

The Agency monitors chatter and has discovered that a Russian science station has been destroyed in an explosion, with the loss of all 14 personnel. They believe it was no accident. Overruling Stetko’s arguments about jurisdiction, the Feds tell her she’s going to investigate, or â€œoffer help, in the spirit of the Treatyâ€ because despite her naive beliefs, every nation represented on Antarctica has weapons stockpiled there – even America – and Tayshetskaya base was just such an armoury/staging ground for potential conflictsâ€¦

Weathering a tirade of threats and discounting a wealth of promised bribes, Carrie soon finds herself on a plane heading due south.

She is welcomed by her Russian opposite number Pyotr Danilovich and his emergency team at the burned out site of the base. The harassed investigator studiously knows nothing and is severely disquieted when Stetko points out that one of the burned bodies from the â€œaccidentâ€ has a bullet hole in it.

Of course according to the Antarctica Treaty all weapons are banned on the jointly-administered continent, but this isn’t like anything she’s seen beforeâ€¦

Leaving Pyotr desperately trying to convince himself that it’s all just a mistake and accident, Carrie begins wandering through the burned-out wreckage and plunges through the flooring into a hidden room stuffed with crates of small arms. In a corner are three empty crates marked with the tri-foil – international symbol of radiation. The Russians also stored nukes here – but they’re missing nowâ€¦

Far away, six killers are racing away on snow-mobiles with their prizes but have no true appreciation of the ice. After crashing into a hidden crevasse there are only fiveâ€¦

Back at Tayshetskaya a mysterious Russian has arrived on scene. Captain Aleksandr Ivanovich Kuchin claims to be her official back-up and official liaison, tasked by his government with giving her all the assistance she needs, and disarmingly adds that he is also there to quash any embarrassing scandalâ€¦

He also states that the killer thieves are ex-Speznaz: mercenaries who have stolen the nukes for a client and will be smuggling them out over the ice rather than through more normal channels. After checking in with her own bosses Carrie is told to get them – and proof of the Russian government’s treaty-breaking – if she ever wants to leave Antarcticaâ€¦

Using satellite tech, Stetko and Kuchin narrow down the killers’ current location and set after them on skis, but the mutually suspicious manhunters are almost killed by a booby trap and buried alive in a crevasseâ€¦

Forced to trust each other for the duration, the pair brilliantly extricate themselves and resume the chase. They have an unsuspected ally: the brutal remorseless Antarctic is gradually eroding the confidence and capability of the fleeing mercenaries who are now reduced to four cold, gradually dying men. Unfortunately the ice plays no favourites and tries its damnedest to kill Carrie and her stoic companion tooâ€¦

After surviving a deadly storm Carrie wakes up alone and, suspicions sadly confirmed, sets off after the duplicitous Kuchin. The cagy Russian, however, has been captured by his quarry and faces a most unpleasant end, but neither the killers nor their intended victim realise that the US Marshal has found their lost and flash-frozen comrade and now possesses the very best in mercenary weaponry and camouflageâ€¦

Escalating into an inevitable and spectacularly bloody climax, this grim, gritty and stunningly gripping thriller perfectly augments Carrie Stetko’s proven guts and smarts with a devastating display of her capacity for swift, effective, problem-solving violence and propensity to do the right thing no matter what the costâ€¦

Sharp, hard-boiled and savagely ultra-cool, this magnificent cold-hearted intercontinental caper is a sublime second outing for one of the best female crimebusters in comics and the frustrating wait for the much-delayed third outing chafes worse than frostbite.

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