Devils Due Publishing – Nov 2008 – $3.50 – 32pgs – Color
Writer: Mark Powers – Art: Shawn Mcmanus – Cover: Phil Jimenez
Synopsis: The book opens up with a page dedicated to showing us how a chip is placed in John that will give him 350 days of hormones and proteins to stimulate what sleep would provide him so that he can effectively live without sleep. Six months later we see that John is living well, and not appearing to have any negative side effects. John’s friend (Ted Blake) is effectively giving an update to a panel of people on John and the success of the drug. There is a woman in the panel who disagrees with the drugs use and brings up a village of people who all died during the testing phase. Ted informs her that the people died as a result of a drug kingpin in the area killing them off for his own purposes. Interestingly it appears that Ted is receiving advice during the meeting from a hallucination of a man sitting next to him.
We then go back to John who has travelled to Cairo to meet with some business associates. After the meeting John discovers he is being followed and is surrounded by three men who appear to want to study him for the secret drug he is taking. No sooner than they tell John what they want all three of the men have a bullet through their head, and John discovers he has a man from Dante Global (company that makes the drug) watching his every move. When John gets back home he has Ted over to tell him he wants out of the program because of the Cairo incident. Ted basically pulls the “everyone is counting on you” card, and it appears John is back on board. Later John notices a woman on the subway that has the same scar from the chip procedure he received.
Review: The action and story really pick up in this issue. I really liked the almost unnoticeable delusion that Ted is having at the meeting, I missed it myself the first time I read it! It is also becoming apparent that not everything is bubblegum and jellybeans with the addition of some creditable threats and mystery. The original cover on this issue is awesome, and the photo variant is okay. Also, there is a clever advertisement on the inside cover page for seracetinol (the sleep drug). FYI, I have discovered through a contact at DDP that this title is currently on hold, and will post that info in the forums. I won’t rate the issue based on that…even though I am a little annoyed about it!
Story: 8 – Writing: 8.5 – Art: 8 – Cover (A): 10
Overall: 8.6
