Collapser #1 - DC Comics

COLLAPSER No. 1, September 2019

Disappointingly replacing action with ‘F-Bombs’ and other expletives, Mikey Way and Shaun Simon’s plot for Issue One of “Collapser” is a serious word-fest which debatably fails to deliver little more than a bemusing tale about a nursing home employee who desperately desires to make it as an internationally famous disc jockey. Unfortunately for Liam James though, such aspirations are ultimately side-lined when “he receives a black hole in the mail”, and this comic’s collaborative writing team decide to have the titular character literally trip the light fantastic through time and space courtesy of a seemingly sentient swirling oily goop; “Monday! I’ve been out for days? But last night was Friday. We all went to Rick’s and --"

Of course, that doesn’t mean that the majority of this twenty-four page periodical is dedicated to the orderly’s monotonously mundane changing of bed-pans, wrapping of leg bandages, washing of dentures and removal of geriatric corpses. Far from it in fact, as the hospital attendant’s desperately endearing attempts to give the elderly Mister Edgar his daily game of chess, are repeatedly interrupted with the galactic-based shenanigans of a blood-thirsty adventurer who seems hell bent on locating the Black Hole which ultimately killed Liam’s mother on a distant, garishly-coloured alien planet. But such fascinating glimpses of the universe within which “Constellation Prize” is set seldom last more than a handful of panels, and arguably just make James’ lack-lustre trips to buy cigarettes from his local store appear even more tedious than they’ve actually been penned.

Sadly, Ilia’s Kyriazis’ storyboards don’t disputably help this “Young Animal” publication’s pacing either, with the Athens-born artist’s decision to spend two and a half pages just illustrating this comic’s protagonist answering his front door setting a truly sedentary stride which, with the notable exception of Liam’s utterly surreal trip “home”, never seems to particularly quicken. Indeed, despite there being some significant backstory crammed into this series’ opening instalment, there is definitely a disconcerting sense of ‘padding out the script’ to the Panhellenic comics award-winner’s drawing.

Equally as time-consuming for the reader to negotiate are all the demoralisingly wordy, obscenity-filled thought balloons which follow the ‘helping hand’ as he goes about his day to day meanderings. Sold by this comic’s creative team as a positive insight into the young man’s battle with anxiety, these deliberations actually debatably detract from the tempo of the storytelling, and having been inked with confusing black backgrounds could initially be mistaken for the ‘voice’ of the Black Hole before its even arrived on modern-day Earth…

The regular cover art of "COLLAPSER" No. 1 by Ilias Kyriazis