Letter 44 #8 (Oni)

via Comic Book Roundup

writer: Charles Soule

artist: Alberto Jimenez Albuquerque

Next year this is going to be the only thing Charles Soule releases that isn't published by Marvel.

And yes, I am still crying hot tears over DC's loss.

So I figured I should have a look at this creator-owned concept of his.  The title is kind of obscure, so anytime I saw it I still had no idea what it was about.  Turns out it's a more or less contemporary drama about a United States president who has recently come into office and is trying to fight the same wars we know.  He's just unleashed secret weapons the country had been developing, and now has to handle the fallout to that decision, not to mention the meddling of his predecessor.

And there are astronauts breaking new ground, not the least of which is a baby born in space.

I don't really know much of what's going on, other than what I can research.  It's interesting.  Soule has become such a reliable writer, whatever he works on will be worth a look, and to know that this is the story he wants to tell outside the superhero arena certainly says a lot about his instincts when allowed to cater to his own devices.  Clearly he likes drama that involves a multitude of players, and characters who are constantly walking tightropes at that.  

I was relieved to see that the art isn't really all that bad.  Sometimes when you're working far away from the major publishers that's not at all a given, but Alberto Albuquerque reminds me of Josh Hood, who finished out Superboy and the Ravers nearly twenty years ago.  He favors extremely flat noses, which is certainly distinctive.

Overall, I'm intrigued.  I think I'd have to take another digital plunge, because I bought this particular issue from a shop I visit about once a year, unless I ask my local store to begin ordering it for me.  But those guys continue to be wildly unreliable!