By Svetlana Fedotov
Did you know that 9/11 was caused by the US government as a reason to enter Iraq? Or that Bill Clinton would assassinate anyone who opposed him with a body count of up to sixty mysterious deaths? Oh, and I’m sure you heard that the moon landing was completely faked and that electrical car technologies are being viciously suppressed by big oil. Even if none of these ideas has any substantial evidence to back them up, conspiracy theories have been around as long as fear has turned a profit. But among the swarms of misinformation and complete idiocy, there sometimes appears to be a grain of truth mixed in with the sand and that’s where the shadow men step in – a secret government organization intent on keeping the unwashed masses unwashed lest we wreak havoc War of the Worlds style. Deep State follows the exploits of one such team as they stumble upon the biggest conspiracy of them all: THAT WHICH CAME FROM THE MOON!
The comic starts off fairly typical with your standard smart yet over-zealous police protagonist simply known as Ms. Branch being absconded by a mysterious man with a mysterious offer; kind of like Men in Black sans Will Smith’s zippy one-liners. The man, who calls himself John Harrow, doesn’t officially exist, but the matters he handles are very much real. Thanks to a “ten billion dollar program” Harrow decides that Ms. Branch is the perfect candidate to join his organization, one that deals with suppressing sensitive information from reaching the public ears. Of course, she readily agrees and he quickly whisks her away into the world behind the curtain, starting with the true story of the moon landing. You see, the US did not actually win the space race, were just the first make it back alive and whatever was left behind is now searching for a way home. With the arrival of a mysterious crash in the boondocks of middle America, Ms. Branch is thrust forward into her first, strange case.
While the premise of Deep State is not terribly original, the execution is at least a fun read. There is very little character development though and while I understand it’s not necessary for Harrow since he’s supposed to be spooky, it would have really helped even out Branch’s personality instead of, I don’t know, not having one. In fact, the only characters that seem to have any kind of flair are the backwoods cops they run into and that only lasts a few pages. It’s interesting because the writer, Justin Jordan, is not particularly new to comic books, having written a fantastic comic called The Strange Talent of Luther Strode that launched his career, so I’m not sure what happened here. But, as stated, the story itself is a pretty fun read. He writes a very original take on the moon landing and I’m digging the supernatural twists. I am willing to stick it out and see where it goes.
The art by Ariela Kristantina though suffers from the worst type of injustice, bad inking. While generally a solid artist and penciler, somewhere between her drawing ending and her inking beginning, things got sloppy. While the basic shapes and ideas are all there, with proper angles and layout and all that stuff I’m a stickler for, the inking manages to sort of slop over the final details leaving – brrrrr – drifting faces. You know what I’m talking about, eyeballs floating one way while mouths slink off another way. It’s not as bad as some of the stuff I’ve seen, but it’s not unnoticeable. I’m pretty sure the scratch-style is intentional but it falls a bit short. On the plus side though, the color and spreads are pretty decent and mixed with the story, it makes for a pretty cool comic.
Deep State: come for the conspiracy, stay for the inking. Out now from BOOM! studios!