Jonathan Hickman is one of my favorite creators in comics.  The Nightly News, which he wrote, penciled, inked, layed out, lettered, and colored himself, is my favorite graphic novel of all time.  It hits my favorite theme, does an incredible job of weaving his fictional story with real life media, and even name drops a friend of mine in a really cool way.

Since The Nightly News, Hickman has been busy writing a bunch of three or four issue series, and has recently become one of the foremost writers in the Marvel stable, taking on Secret Warriors, Dark Reign Fantastic Four (and is soon to take over the main Fantastic Four title), and is my favorite contributor to the Astonishing Tales compilations.  Because he’s so busy, however, he’s had less and less time to write his smaller press titles.  In fact, it’s been so long since Red Mass From Mars issue #2 came out in early January, that I don’t even remember what the series is about.  Not, I’ve forgotten the salient plot points; I opened the book not remembering a single damned detail of what this comic was about. 

In some respects, I’m lucky that this was an easy read, because it all came back to me as I read it.  Apocalyptic story about a guy who could save the doomed Earth but is likely to choose not to.  And my problem with this story is that, unlike his very plot-focused, intense other work, this comic reads like the outline to a mediocre comic book.  It could be a really cool version of The Superman mythos, wherein Kal-El’s father is forced to kill the baby to save Krypton, instead of sending him away.  I think that’s what Hickman intended.  But there’s no passion or empathy for characters here because they’re just chalk outlines.  This thins is happening to this person.  Wouldn’t that suck.  Yes, but where’s their turmoil?  If you’re not going to explore the ineer-workings of the superhero you need to have some kickass looking fight sequences, and those aren’t here.  It’s not an action comic.  It’s not really a superhero story, though there’s capes.  And it’s only superficially scifi. 

The artwork is also pretty mediocre.  The pencils are well-drawn by Ryan Bodenheim, but Hickman’s wash coloring job seems lazy.  I’m sure it was done with purpose, but what purpose that is is beyond me.  I would rather he just left it in black and white, and cut a dollar off the price. 

This isn’t the worst comic in the world.  It’s not even the worst comic I’m going to read this week.  It’s just a bit of a dissapointment, given the writer.