Deep State (BOOM! Studios)
Written by Justin Jordan
Art by Ariela Kristantina
With this week’s big space related event, it seemed fitting to review Deep State #1 from BOOM! Studios. This first issue of Deep State provides us with a solid start to the narrative without giving too much away and giving readers a reason to come back for the next issue.
Deep State’s plot revolves around two agents of an unnamed and wholly unknown government agency, the veteran John Harrow and the newly recruited Ms. Branch. The goal of the agents is to prevent weird and unknown things from getting out of hand, which they seem to be bungling in this first issue. An old Soviet-era space craft returns to Earth and something rather bizarre and creepy has overcome the cosmonaut inside, who has been presumed dead for decades. The plot is a conspiracy theorist’s wet dream. There are at least four major conspiracy theory topics that are touched on (I would swear there is a fifth, but I can’t find it now), including the Kennedy assassination and faking the moon landings. These are mostly used to set the scene for the actual plot and are only mentioned in passing. It’s nice when writers only dangle their toes in the crazy pool. Justin Jordan’s writing does a good job handling the required introductory dialogue without losing the reader’s attention. He has a bit of fun with the obvious comparisons to the X-Files and other black suit wearing government agencies. When Harrow is talking with the local sheriff, he manages to make a quip about being a “man in black,” but only because it’s slimming. The comment both serves the narrative by helping put the sheriff at ease, as well as providing a quick nod and wink to the audience.
The art is pretty solid. Ariela Kristantina’s style is loose and sketchy but well executed. This tends to show much more in panels that have no people. The first couple of pages show the Soviet spacecraft plummeting to Earth and it is far more expressive than the next several pages. That is not to say that Kristantina’s characters are in any way static. In fact, she makes the most out of several pages worth of talking heads by providing great facial expressions and body language. If I had one complaint about the book’s visual style it would have to be that it seems bleak. The entire book is predominantly done in reds, oranges, gray, black, and white. While this makes the blues of the alien creature stand out, it also makes the book feel like it is being perpetually lit by a fire. Occasionally fire is used as a light source, but not often enough that it would otherwise affect the overall feel. A few isolated panels were obscure and difficult to understand.
In all, Deep State is a solid first showing. I’m very excited to see several publishers jumping on the weird science fiction band wagon and putting out really unique and engrossing titles. I’m definitely on board for the next several issues, and hopefully even more than that. 3.5/5 Death Stars.
Therefore I Geek 