The Field #1
Roy, Brisson, Gough
SPOILER ALERT!
I will most certainly be SPOILING!
As you might have guessed, Image Comic’s Field starts in a field. The first page shows three men, at least one of them armed, walking over the crest of a hill with lights as a backdrop. Apparently they are looking for someone and only have so much time to find him. With the silhouettes moving closer, and then the image blurring, we realize that we are seeing from the point of view of whomever these men are looking for.
Another field greets us in the next page, only this time we see a man in his underpants and shocked. Seemingly confused, the man looks around until a phone begins to go off. The number is unknown, but its conspicuous location suggests that this man’s situation has been contrived. The man can’t seem to unlock it and is about to give up when the phone vibrates, revealing the message “Run”.
Simultaneously, the sounds of an approaching car begin in the distance and grow louder fast. The man leads a merry chase, but eventually trips, and before the car’s driver can get out of the car, the phone goes off again, ordering the man to avoid getting in the car. The driver is slightly overweight, in a white button up shirt, a tie, and glasses. Of his many accessories, his gun is most important, and pointed at the confused man. Of course, his only order is for the man to…
“Get that sweet can of yours into my mother lovin’ car”
Twenty minutes later, the time derived from the phone, the two are driving through the countryside. Our confused man doesn’t know his name, or really anything else, and the driver, who is named Christian, chalks it up to “anema”. He also demands a thank you, which the befuddled man quickly offers. Christian strikes the man with the butt of his gun, and rants about the man’s lack of respect and his manners. Christian tries to smooth things over with some “clean Rock n Roll”, but he has clearly shown his hand as a loose cannon.
Next, the open road. A motorcycle club by the name of the smoke eater’s is driving down, presumably, the same stretch of road.
Another abrupt scene change and we are glimpsing some sort of super science lab and the bureaucratic issues that go along with it. Once more, through interaction, we are seeing through the eyes of the man. Seeing through his eyes, right up until he wakes up to Christian declaring a stop for food.
Entering the diner, Christian leaves the man alone, and the phone once more warns him, this time claiming that Christian is going to kill him. Nervously, the man looks around, receiving suspicious glances from most of the patrons, and a warm welcome from the waitress. Christian returns, and begins to monologue about how his family has always been good Christians, while doing cocaine in public, and claims he has a loophole. A loophole, apparently, that has something to do with the amnesiac man. When the man tries to leave, Christian snaps, killing four of the patrons, to curious protests of the waitress.
These protests are the most interesting thing in the comic thus far, as she calls out Christian about promising not to do this again, and that she has to clean it up. Christian turns back to the man, as if his actions explain something, then demands that the man get up so they can keep moving.
One final scene change returns to the smoke eaters. They investigate the tire tracks from the man’s initial flight from the car, and they conclude that they are too late. With their final words, they reveal that they are also hunting the man.
Field #1 is a good first issue with just a little too much mystery. While the protagonist is sympathetic, his lack of even a name causes a distance that damages the story just a little. This is overshadowed by Christian’s sociopathic behavior, which is perhaps the point, as it establishes the enemy early on. The biker’s and the dream about the scientists hint at a larger story, but the most intriguing thing is the waitresses words. Already, we have enough information to take a guess at elements of the story. Is the man some kind of reset button on time, a trigger pull away from starting the night over again? I’ll anxiously await issue #2, if only to see if my theory is right.
My Rating: 3.5 / 5
reminds me of a crazy alternate universe jim gordon. haha.