A slow burn, high stakes sci-fi drama.
Creative Staff:
Story: Charles Soule
Art: Alberto Jiménez Alburquerque
What They Say:
Newly-inaugurated president of the United States Stephen Blades plops down at the Oval Office desk to begin reading his predecessor’s traditional letter of greeting. Expecting war and politics, he instead gets a surprise: Aliens are secretly building something up in the asteroid belt and we’ve sent nine astronauts to make first contact. Good luck.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers.)
All good stories are mysteries.
That mystery can be in the traditional sense of the word: A gumshoe worming his way through a rotten case or a group of kids ripping the fake skin off an incompetent masked villain. Or it can be less literal. The mystery can be the revelation of character, the discovery of true motivations, or simply the desire to see the resolution of conflict and everyone’s ultimate fate.
Letter 44, as a whole, has got it all.
The story begins with the freshly elected Barack Ob-… Sorry, “Stephen Blades,” taking his first sit at the oval office desk and cracking into his predecessor’s traditional letter of greeting. Turns out that all the money the old prez had been funneling into overseas wars, defense and R&D wasn’t just to ruin the country economically. It was because, seven years prior, NASA had discovered (and covered up,) an alien mining operation in the asteroid belt, and all that military development might come in handy very soon. On top of all that, the mining site is shielded, so nine astronauts were sent on a three year, one-way trip to find out what’s really going on. Good luck, Mr. President and it’s your problem now, sucker.
Letter 44’s plot development is interesting, in that there really isn’t that much of it, at least in this volume. The heart of the conflict centers around the characters, and not so much around the discovery of what the alien construction workers might be up to. Wanting to peek at the aliens is what drives us through an entire book, but what keeps us reading page to page is the characters, and writer Charles Soule (Swamp Thing, Death of Wolverine,) understands that perfectly.
The narrative is split into two fronts: President Blade’s struggle to manage his cabinet and his desire to reveal the truth to the world, and the band of astronaut’s trouble with a failing ship, combative crewmates, and eventual encounters with unknown alien elements. (Not to mention an unintentional pregnancy and jealous lovers.)
While Soule juggles the pacing and interplay of these dual narratives expertly, in the end the astronauts story is just plain more interesting, and elements of drama in Blade’s half of the tale often feel artificially injected when compared with the natural tension and danger inherent in the astronaut’s space bound situation.
Though this certainly appears set to change in future volumes. Something strange and threatening is happening on Earth, with specific regards to killing the president, but what exactly that thing is remains to be seen.
Letter 44 is also a very dialogue heavy book, which may be a turn off for some. It is, however, something fairly common in this kind of high concept science fiction, where copious amounts of exposition can be necessary to convey complex science fictional or (in this case,) political elements. While I can understand some reader’s distaste when they turn the page of a comic book, a visual medium, and encounter a wall of text, Soule minimizes any damage with intelligent spacing of information and natural sounding speech.
Art-wise, Letter 44 is nothing if not competent. Alberto Jiménez Alburquerque has a knack for keeping the visuals interesting even when we’re presented with several pages of talking heads and hefty word balloons. Though it sometimes feels as though there is a lack of truly impressive visual moments, either in space or on Earth. I was looking for some awe-inspiring depiction of something sci-fi oriented, but came up empty handed. But in terms of art that truly flows with and accents the strength of its accompanying story, Alburquerque has done a stellar job.
In Summary:
Letter 44 is definitely a slow burning story, and in some minor ways that hurts its appeal. Discoveries only lead to more questions. But the extremely well crafted and entertaining conflict kept me engaged throughout regardless. The set up is incredibly strong, so I’m expecting an equally satisfying payoff in future volumes.
Grade: A-
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Oni Press
Release Date: July 30th, 2014
MSRP: $19.99
