Six

    (Image, 2004)
™ and © Image Comics, Inc.

Here’s something that seems like it would be much more at home at Oni Press than Image. That is, until you see that this neat little existential puzzle box with cheap and nasty direct to video science–fiction feature overtones was created, co–written, and inked by Powers artist Michael Avon Oeming.

We follow Agent Six, an ominous man in black who’s been given a brief time to track down other extraterrestrials before he himself falls victim to the “contamination” that caused them to go rogue in the first place. Either that or he’s insane, a proposition supported by the high–impact cinematic style storytelling which effectively uses negative space to create a bleak, stark atmosphere which reflects Six’s ever–increasing alienation and desperation.

It toys with fantasy and reality, the setting shifting between bland contemporary noir to hallucinatory nightmare and back until one gets superimposed on the other, grotesque and haunting images overflowing the “gutters” between panels until they ooze across the page. And while it’s certainly short on both plot and characters, it’s without question visually stunning.

— S.A. Bennett
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#1

August, 2004
Cover Price: $5.95
4 copies available from $4.98 		Michael Avon Oeming, Dan BermanEthen Beavers, David Mack, Chris Chua, Andy Lee, Eric Powell, Jim Di Bartolo