Is hell a result of the environment or does it only exist for an individual because they choose to allow it to?
What They Say:
Hard to find as single issues, Ape Entertainment’s critically-acclaimed dark superhero epic is fully collected here for the first time! When five refugee survivors develop horrific mutations from a devastating chemical explosion, they band together to seek revenge. But are they monsters…or heroes? Includes exclusive pin-up gallery!
The Review:
When heroes fall it is never easy as it almost always brings pain in one form or another to those they protected. Be it the fear that the night is no longer safe, the chains of enslavement from some conqueror or the horror that comes from watching their greatest light collapse from the weight heaped upon them the resulting tragedy leaves a black stain on at least part of the world.
The world of Freakshow brings us into a world currently suffering from such an aftermath as they have lost their first-and only- superhero, Vanguard. Like any number of heroes his origin is unknown to the populace but his death is legend-made even greater as the chemical attack that felled him killed a large portion of the populace outright- and those were the lucky ones. Those not so lucky have found themselves living in a wasteland where social order has collapsed because of a rare side effect to the chemical-about 1% of the population’s genetic structure mutated and granted them great power though almost always at the cost of their ability to pass as human. As a result of this and the lingering chemical smoke the city has become a proverbial city of the dead where the nightmares of mankind rule.
A group of government agents, most decked out in full environmental gear, have been assigned to carry an important parchment through the city. The chemical from the attack, known as Smoke, still hangs in the air as heavy and thick as the fog that once held sway over Victorian era London when a man known as Jack went about his gruesome business using it as cover. Much like the horrors that snuck through those streets the shadows seen through the Smoke reveal horrific sights before figures can be seen-but by that time it is too late for the government men. The agents are wiped out by a lose collective that have banded together out of a feeling of mutual protection as well as because of the shared strong bond their rage at what has been done to them and the desire to avenge themselves.
This group is lead by Stronghold, an enormous monster of a man who wears giant plates for armor and a concrete slab across his back. This man wears a helmet that conceals most of his head, though his eyes which almost always flash with malice and his mouth which almost seems locked in either an expression of rage or contempt can be seen which makes him appear even more frightful that his gigantic bulk. Those who follow his orders are the mysterious Fog who has abilities like a living cloud, Psychosis with his ability to enter minds and make the owner see images that could make H.P. Lovecraft throw up and the being known as Rot, an animated corpse in his own state of decay who possesses the ability to bring that to others in an accelerated manner. The last member of the group is also its newest as the teenage Critter’s mutation gave him a tail that is a potent weapon in its own right though he still has problems with the idea of brutality that the group lives by.
This trouble assimilating to the brutal pack he finds himself running in has him allow one of the members (Jacquelin Murphy) of the government team to survive. She returns to headquarters to meet up with a man (Dr. Gaghen) who is as brutal in his own way as the five man team she just encountered. He reveals that he sent the members on the mission hoping that the information they carried would be captured. Combined with his Smoke experiments reveal he is a man who sees all those around him as pawns in his game to be discarded when their usefulness to him has ended.
Perhaps the biggest surprise Dr. Gaghen reveals is that he was the creator of Vanguard and used the Smoke to do it, however the Smoke used in the bombing was actually an accident, one whose aftermath he intends to put right. Like many stories there are two sides and Stronghold tells the tale differently. He tells of a man hired to test an experimental weapon in a city and who has been rewarded handsomely for his work and who is deserving of retribution.
Both sides now will be moving against the other as they try to nullify each other’s forces. As the battles intensify one of the five members of the outlaw group will be taken hostage, though this may prove the biggest benefit as members of both sides now get a look at another perspective and find that there are parts of the story they were told that just don’t add up. Now with the clock ticking as Stronghold and Dr. Gaghen move closer to getting their hands around the others throat secrets will finally come to light-secrets which may shatter bonds forged while the clouds of vengeance and evil gather in a manner that looks to promise that the previous incident was merely prelude to the symphony of disaster that’s strains are starting to echo across the field of battle.
There is just an outstanding amount of praise to be thrown at this book. A lot of superhero books try to pull off the outsider or “why me” angles and a number of them fall flat as a lot of those powers bring on some responsibility but not a large percentage of those in the stories are burdened with abilities that mark them as clearly either more than or less than human depending on one’s perspective. In Freakshow the characters can’t escape and hide in normal society due to their appearance. This is then made double in its painful toll as the event that gave them their appearance came at the cost of everyone and everything they had known and they band together like the circus acts of old for community as well as protection. Freakshow uses the character of Critter and his rather young eyes to examine the actions of those around him and their motivations which help bring in an anchor to the series and helps find a lens through which the characters are brought to life.
The series is fortunate in that they have a very talented artist to do the work of bringing the environment to life and making it a continual supporting character. While the smoky background may seem like an illustrators dream in that it limits the amount of background work needed it is a double edged sword as then care must be taken to give life to shadows while also communicating the dread that exists as one never knows what it is that lurks just out of sight. Pulling this off helps add another degree of tension to the script and helps to play off the desolate aura that the city is supposed to be steeped in. About the only down side to this take on a fallen city is that the characters all wear costumes that are also muted which can cause a few problems in a couple panels. It is easy to see why many comic book creators use bright colors for their characters as not only do they catch the eye but strong colors also helps set the costumes apart from scenery as this almost urban camouflage look can create a few instances where it becomes difficult to distinguish what is going on with how things kind of blend together at times.
The only other real problem that I found with the book is that the initial set up could have used a few more pages. It was such a quick launch into the meat of the story that the impact of who Vanguard was and what he meant to the city is lost. While this gets slightly papered over by dialogue throughout the story his demise is mostly hinted at, which given its importance to events felt like it needed a bit more fleshing out to really catch the whole impact. In some ways it felt like the beginning of Watchmen with the Comedian’s death but without any of the follow up that story did and as such a good deal of the potential emotional impact is lost. The sense of time is also lost as there is never a really good feel on just how much time has passed since the incident which changed the city which creates a bit of a haze in the ability to put together of a timeline of events and sense of its impact on the story. The series could probably have been an issue longer to help enrich the various plot threads a bit more though a standalone follow up showing the prelude to events in the comic could do some massaging of back story and help give a feel for the time that has passed as well.
In Summary:
Freakshow brings forth a tale of misfortune and woe in the aftermath of a cataclysmic accident that has left sorrow and rage in its wake. And yet it doesn’t limit itself to a book just explaining why these people in this terrible situation do what they do but in the midst of so much darkness and fog it creates a situation where a beacon of light can slash through the moral fog and show that there is more than just on way to respond to the current situation. Freakshow brings a humanness to its characters that can be overlooked as it presents options to its characters who feel they have none and examines their psyches along the way.
Grade: B
