And here I thought 100 Bullets was a chore to read! Oopha. Don’t get me wrong, 100 Bullets was brilliant and a WHOLE lot of fun, but Azzarello does have a certain style of word-play that works great sometimes but doesn’t work so well for everything (Batman: Broken City, anyone?) In Spaceman, his newest work with other 100 Bullets alums Risso and Johnson, he has come up with a form of verbal short-hand for his characters to use that takes some getting used to. And why NOT? It’s a bright, shiny, glorious future, minus all the bright shining and the gloriousness, so of course we as Americans have mangled up our language something fierce. It seems to be following the logical progression of our speech evolution (or devolution, depending on your view).

It’s interesting to me that Azzarello’s fictional future follows a sort of pattern. NASA has gone down the evolutionary ladder to create a man-ape that can whether the harsh environments of space, and the language of this same future utilizes a speech pattern that comes across sounding more like cave-man speak. There seems to be a theme of delving into the past in order to effect the future.

At any rate, as with any Azzarello offering, there is a certain bit of word play that comes ingrained in the work. During a conversation Orson has with a hooker, when he gets a little too chatty, she asks if this session is going to be sexy times or talky times. He says “It’s a make me feel better time”, to which she replies “and who FEELS you better than me?” This is one of Azzarello’s signature moves. Much like many pencilers that I can recognize by the linework, you could probably hand me any Azz works without revealing who wrote it, and I would still be able to tell from all the clever word-play.

Risso is one of those artists as well. He has a signature style that is unmistakable and he just draws the hell out of every book he does. This is no exception. So much so that after reading it, I immediately went back to eye-hump the artwork panel by panel.

This is an insanely original world that Azzarello and Risso have created and I can’t wait for the next one. If you are worried that you’ll be signing up for another 100 issues, per 100 Bullets, have no fear, this is only a 9 issue maxi-series. Oh, and this first issue is only $1. Just buy it already!

PS. Does anyone else immediately see the word “Spaceman” and hear Tracey Jordan from 30 Rock pronouncing it “Spa-che-men”? No? Just me? Ok.