The Fuse #12 (Image)

writer: Antony Johnston

artist: Justin Greenwood

Last week I read a digital copy of Fuse's first issue, and it reminded me that I should be reading The Fuse.  By sheer coincidence, there was a new issue released on Wednesday, and it was the conclusion of an arc.  Coincidence, perfect timing...

Fuse is a police procedural set on a space station, and it comes from the mind of Antony Johnston, genius creator of the recently concluded Wasteland.

Part of the reason I originally felt reluctance to sign up for an ongoing tour was that I wasn't sure I wanted to follow a more episodic Johnston after the epic arc featured in sixty issues of Wasteland.  But Klem and Marlene do have their secrets.  Marlene (real name: Ralph)'s reasons for requesting assignment to the station have been a lingering mystery that the veteran Klem has been wondering about since she accepted him on as her new partner.  But now it seems as if Klem, too, has her mysteries.

This is good.

The issue concludes the "Gridlock" arc and it's in classic procedural fashion, the culprit being fingered with a full explanation of how they did it.  Maybe it's the TV viewer in me, but that's always my favorite part anyway.  I previously checked in on Fuse at the start of the arc, so that's another of the good timing bit going around.

In the letters column, Johnston celebrates the connection the series has made with its fans, and then explains what the next arc is going to be, and it sounds very interesting, a sort of reverse of The Purge, the movies about the one day of the year when everybody can be bad guys (!!!).  Here it will be an exploration of the day Earth is closest to the sun, and how this makes everyone extra crazy.  If you know of other stories that have explored this concept, let me know!