“…in my vast experience, anybody who says they’ve got everything under control…
…is full of it.”
We’re six issues in on a series about a woman who used to be a cop until she reported her coworkers for police brutality, and now she’s a Green Lantern on a planet who’s police force just opened fire into a crowd of protesters. This issue was written months ago, do I even need to point that out?
Keep reading for a review of Far Sector #6.
I loved the intro this issue, which was a very tongue-in-cheek exposition fest from Jo and Councilor Marth, done in a pulp romance style, and it was funny and beautiful at the same time. It’s a nice balance to the next few pages where Jo’s feeling like a failure and counting up the number of funerals she’s been to lately.
Jo’s just lonely. She’s the only person in the city who doesn’t have the Emotion Exploit, the genetic trait that turns off everyone’s emotions. And she doesn’t want to admit it, but that’s part of the reason why she’s attracted to Councilor Marth: he’s a regular user of Switchoff, the drug that switches off the Emotion Exploit and lets you feel emotions, and she needs that emotional connection right now. (The other reason she’s into him is because he’s a snack, obviously.)
Problem is, when Marth isn’t on Switchoff he sees ordering the slaughter of protesters like moving pieces on a game board. But, when you’re sad from going to multiple funerals all week (and not going to several more because people didn’t want you there) and guilty about the time you didn’t prevent a coworker from pistol whipping the crap out of someone, it’s easier to think of Marth as two different people. Bets on how likely this is to end badly? (Jo won’t take the bet, she already knows it will.)
We’re left with a cliffhanger this week, and however things turn out, I hope it doesn’t end up with her going to another funeral. Or several.
What can I say about Jamal Campbell’s art that I haven’t already said several times? I loved the panel where their faces are lit from below by the phone screen, and the double page spread of a busy walkway seen through a giant glass window, and the panel where Jo and Marth are sitting at her kitchen counter while he tries to explain why he did what he did. It’s so intricate and beautifully done, I’ve already read it three times and I keep finding details I missed.
