by Joshua Williamson (Author), Daniel Sampere (Illustrator), Jim Cheung (Illustrator), Jack Herbert (Illustrator), Giuseppe Camuncoli (Illustrator)
DC is well known for drastically shaking it’s continuity in order to make a statement, and all in grand, spectacular narratives drawn by the likes of the late George Perez and his ilk.
This, to some extent, is different yet similar.
The narrative is straightforward yet also delivered in grand strokes; in an effort to rebuild the original multiverse, the entity known as Pariah powers a machine where parallel earths are created by making worlds tailor made of echo chambers of individual heroes’ lives, ambitions and antagonisms; a prison made of algorithms reflecting back who they are rather than points of encounter between different universes.
If that isn’t an obvious statement of a world manufactured and fragmented by social media, I don’t know what is.
A reactionary figure is someone who glorifies “the good old days,” claiming that things were better in the past, even though those times were never as good as they say. They use this nostalgic idea to push their agenda and gain power, trying to bring back the same conditions that caused problems in the first place. They justify their actions by saying that the world is inherently flawed (“the darkness”) or that people can’t change (“human nature”), to prevent others from trying to create a better future.
In other words, Pariah is a stand in for a certain billionaire who has a fascination with the Roman numeral for ten.
Joshua Williamson’s writing and Daniel Sampere’s art make the happenings far smaller than most previous crises, all with a very specific sense of location that does not span parallel universes but just the specific locations they want these things to happen, which makes for a very interesting decision as it does create a sense of destination where the team would like to get with their story; it is therefore very linear, with very few points in which it diverges into tie-ins unlike most crossover events that have become a dime a dozen, which personally makes for a welcome change of pace. There are definitely points that make the story bigger than it is; but it is far more modest in doing so.
It is a welcome read in the wearisome comic landscape we have in the mainstream nowadays. It could have done with a less on-the-nose title (seriously how many events with “crisis” in the name have DC thrown at us?) but it’s a good read and makes for a good opportunity of reflection.
