Comics: Echo

By Sonia Aurora

I’m still a newbie when it comes to comics. Mainly, I’ve read recommendations to comics, and my first real foyer was the cross over comics of Batman vs. Predator back in 1999 when a friend gave it to me while we sat freezing, filming an outdoor scene for a movie (my life as a movie extra was short lived, but it did begin a like of comics).

As a fan of Evil Dead and Buffy, I couldn’t help but get into those comic incarnations, and since then, I will randomly pick up one or two when I go with my sister to visit her comic book guy (who, yes, strangely looks like the Simpson’s comic book guy). In our last trip out, as I wandered the store, I was intrigued by the cover of Terry Moore’s Echo (a young woman looking to be showered by round raindrops -or hail- that are silvery foil). Not having a background in Moore’s Strangers in Paradise series I thought it would be nice to get into this without preconceived notions, expectations, or prejudice.

Plus, Comic Book Guy sold me when he said “The first one is weird. Then the second one, well, it gets weirder.”

What also intrigued me is that the comic is colorless. Yes, you read correctly. Essentially, it looks like a coloring book, waiting to be filled in with lushes of sharpened rainbow pencils (or stubby worn crayons). But that urge to color in (or outside) the lines went away pretty quickly once I got into the story…pretty much from page one of Issue #1 I was sucked in.

The first page is a wild, possibly desert flower with the following quote beneath it: “Technological progress is like an ax in the hands of a pathological criminal.” – Albert Einstein. We then follow Annie, in a super space suit, trying to out-fly “sidewinders”…her last line on page one? “Oh God…I’m wearing a nuke”. (You’re sucked in too now, right? Good).

Flashback to four minutes before her nuclear revelation and we come to find out she is being targeted by the government sanction she works for to test the durability of…her suit? The nuke? The weapons they are firing at her? We’re not sure. Coldly they thank her for her sacrifice – one she never signed on for, but without which “the Phi project would’ve died”. Huh- death of one to save a project. How Cold War.

She tears her helmet off, and her last words are, “Why are they killing”…before its cut off by an explosion.

Enter Julie. She is photographing that desert flower when the kaboom goes off. She stares at the sky, then starts to photograph the forming black cloud. And then…it starts to rain.

Metal? It sure ain’t soft. She runs to her truck and realizes these pellets are sticking to her skin and truck as she roars off.

We then meet Dillion, a park ranger trying to understand why the military won’t let him assess the damage the explosion might have done to Moon Lake. It’s obvious that he has little authority, even as he calls his “superior” (a ruse since the walkie talks into a room with a chair, desk and dog that barks back in response). And so, he vacates, for now.

Military Guy and Science-y Older Dude look at the pellets and use a lot of techno jargon that basically means the suit exploded into some kind of a malleable silly putty tiny nuclear bombs…and Julie and her truck are covered in them. She gets home and finds a large piece of the suit in the back bed of the truck. As she enters her house and inspects it, we come to learn a few things about her in the course of checking her answering machine: She has a married sister and is an aunt; she hasn’t signed her divorce papers yet even though her soon-to–be ex seems to be the one opting out of the marriage, and she’s in credit debt.

She checks out the suit piece again, holds it to her shoulder…and pffft! It sticks to her skin. BONDS with it, more like it. And after it snaps itself into place, it calls to all the little pellets that tear off her flesh and bond to the suit piece! The piece now covers one shoulder, part of her chest and one breast. She asks aloud: “What have I done?”  What, indeed.

#2 opens with another, longer Einstein quote on the dangers of atomic power; the cover is also a little more sinister – Julie is pushing down larger metal balls with a huge metal plate across her chest. Julie changes her torn tank into a black t-shirt as she calls Rick and tells him that shes’ going to the emergency room and to meet her there. She exits her house and realizes her truck is covered in metal pellets…and the pellets realize it too as they get sucked off the car onto her metal chest. She’s coming to terms with the fact that she’s becoming “a freakin’ robot”.

She’s in the ER and a doc comes and checks out her metal plate that, apparently, is shocking not only in appearance but when someone else touches it, and more specifically, the symbol etched in the center (which is a circle with a capital “I” going across it). Julie only feels a tingle, while Dr. Sajid loses his glove tip and fingernail. Powerful stuff.  The idiot doc looks for wires (there aren’t any) and touches it again, gets shocked again, and so angry he screams that they don’t treat practical jokesters, and Julie basically gets kicked out of the hospital.

Well, honestly, I doubt there’d be much they could do for her anyway.

On her way to her truck she gets a call from her sister Pam, who apparently is always tired. Julie also speaks to Mira, who addresses Julie as “Mrs. Martin” and tells her they had a good day…hmmm…

Julie’s breastplate tingles right before a homeless man accosts the truck for spare change and a ride…does the new, improved about-to-become-a-suit-again sense danger?

Back to military and government dudes, with Science-y Older Dude (who’s a Professor) really upset that they’ve only been able to recover 28% of the beta suit. Also, turns out there were two people at the site of the explosion, Julie and a man by the lake. They have no pics of the man, but since Julie looked directly up at the explosion, they have a clear pic of her face. And they are looking for her….

Julie is being woken up by her mutt Max, and she realizes that she it wasn’t a dream and she is still wearing her “chrome bra” and Max isn’t zapped/affected by it.

She does a regular morning routine. She tries to pry the “bra” off, to no avail. She wonders if it’s only the symbol that shocks, and wonders if showering will damage it or her…but its only the cold water that shocks her. Turns out, her almost-ex (Rick) didn’t pay the gas, or any of the bills, because he’s punishing her for not signing the divorce papers. He doesn’t even ask her why she went to the emergency room, he just hangs up.

Enter random woman and her daughter in a field, blowing at dandelions and running down a hill. They plan on making spaghetti, but instead she gets a call/text: “You’re On. Moon Lake. RSVP”. She takes off in a jet, puts it on auto-pilot and starts to change her clothes.

Jack Cooper, along with an army dude, look at the sky as military dude assure this Jack character the Army will find all the little million bombs. Enter airplane, and Jack explains that he needs reinforcements, even if the Army doesn’t.

Enter the plane flying mom (Ivy) who departs her plane holding what’s possibly a rifle and an overnight bag and she asks Jack:

“What’s with all the army-you guys lose a bomb?”
“Yes.”

Overall, I have to say I’m sucked in. I like Julie off the bat, and I’m not so sure I want to mystery of the suit solved so much as I want to know how she copes with it and her divorce that she doesn’t want.  And what is up with the sister? Granted, I do want to know about the suit, but I’m already more involved and invested in Julie than anyone – or anything –else.

On my second reading of the comics, I found some instances where I wanted to color. I had read Terry Moore’s decision for the black and white was to not have to be “shoulder to shoulder” with a colorist to get precisely what he wanted. I can appreciate that because in this case it’s the story that covers the hues the colors might distract from. The cover will have to do to give enough distinction in that regard, and it does.

Of course, I now wait with bated breath for Issue #3 to come out, time still showing as TBD. While its refreshing to know Moore anticipates the story to have at least 2 arcs, come out in trade paperbacks, etc., I’m still waiting to see what’s next in store for Julie Martine, her chrome bomb bra, and how Ivy, Jack, the Professor, even Dillion the park ranger factor in (probably love interest, I’m cool with that).

So, I beg of Terry Moore, please start putting out the issues again. Issue #2 came out in April. It’s August. I promise to read the Strangers in Paradise series if you do.

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