“Giga” #3

Aiko’s back, fascism rears its head and more than one person’s questioning the order of the day in “Giga” #3. Warning: spoilers ahead.

Cover by John Lê

Written by Alex Paknadel
Illustrated by John Lê
Colored by Rosh
Lettered by Aditya Bidikar Evan’s oldest friend returns to find the prosthetics she once built transformed into her doppelganger. Mason and the Order of The Red Relay investigate an elephant graveyard of towering Giga remains.

“Giga” is an interesting and nuanced look at a way, way post-apocalyptic society sprung out of mechanized terror and living in a peculiar blend of innocence and zealotry. From our perspective it’s clear there’s much the inhabitants of the Giga don’t know about their “gods.” For the characters who live within the narrative, there’s nothing beyond their grasp as acolytes of the massive, derelict bodies that shelter and silently buoy the very human forces that shape collective thought.

Paknadel is clever with this dual perspective and grounds us in Evan, who exists on the fringes of religious fervor, totalitarian control and chaotic insurgency. He’s a bridge between two extremes who very much desires to be nothing of the sort, and we’re along for the journey as he muddles through meaning and survival. “Giga” #3 deepens this sense of impending doom as the Order cracks down, Evan thinks he’s lost a friend and Aiko reveals herself. It’s quite clear that the Order, like everyone else, is groping around in the dark for answers, but people with political power aren’t likely to admit that shortcoming. People with political power and a warped sense of divine right? Even less likely. Paknadel can get a bit florid with some of Evan’s dialogue at times, but the loftiness of the scripture and the deep lore we’re untangling suits the book’s premise, and the scripting is executed well.

Lê’s art is in many ways the star of the show, and Rosh’s colors add the texture and flavor we need to avoid getting lost in the massive mech-scapes. It takes skill to contrast the small bodies of Evan and the residents against the monstrous carapaces of the mechs, and any perspective flaws definitely matter. Lê is equally skilled at building the uneasy thematic relationship between human and machine bodies in the book’s visuals. When we first see Evan trying out the prosthetics, Lê chooses an angle that makes Evan appear almost kaiju-like, with one foot raised to get his bearings. It’s a moment of tender humor, true, but the angle builds that foreboding without resorting to a line of dialogue highlighting the man/machine dynamic. Over the next two pages, Evan and Aiko quickly move from dominant focal points to dwarfed forms as the two friends remove a small grate, crawl through a confined duct and emerge to a sky-high view of the Giga.

Lê focuses on lots of machine details, picked out in careful contrasting colors by Rosh, while Aiko and Evan struggle through as interlopers in the vast machine. The bottom left panel of Evan’s leg zooms us in to consider both the step he takes and the loving craft in the leg itself. When they emerge, they’re small again, and machinery establishes visual and narrative dominance. Similarly, when Evan flinches as the heated steam billows out of the shaft a moment later, he’s crowded to the edge of the panel while the steam is foregrounded for maximum, sinister effect. The overall tone feels like humanity is clinging not just to the sides and innards of these massive machines, but any kind of identity or significance at all. Rosh’s work is the finishing touch that makes the tableau feel lived in, gritty and accessible thanks to a broad palette and no fear of deploying pastels strategically in such a serious narrative.

Finally, a small detail that proves things add up in comics: Lê chooses hollow, ink-filled eye sockets whenever a character’s in medium profile or further away, and this tiny signifier supports the thematic and emotional work the team are doing in “Giga.” This flirtation with inhumanity and insignificance is subtle enough that we might miss it if we’re not looking, but we certainly won’t miss the sense of unease and unreality these little touches create.

Bidikar has a lot to do in “Giga,” and, as always, he does it well on macro and micro levels. Evan’s heated entreaty later on in the issue is delivered in a ragged burst balloon that suits the emotion of the moment. Bidikar picks a serif font for flashback captions and scripture snippets that’s pleasantly at odds with the modern flair of the mechs and the colorful societal tapestry. Line tails are a risk, especially in a book that has a decent amount of dialogue to situate against such detailed art, but Bidikar keeps them “open” with a broken balloon stroke and a line of white trailing the stronger black. The tails don’t bisect the balloon to break reality, and we still get the sketchy experimentation that suits “Giga” – even when Laurel’s pained, garbled speech demands an especially severe, jagged tail.

Overall, “Giga” #3 puts in good work to deepen the sinister godhead mystery and locate Evan in the center of a complex and treacherous narrative web. With Aiko back, Laurel potentially on the mend and a crackdown on social liberty in the name of “safety,” it’s clear that the biggest threat might not be the Red King or whatever Judgment Day might be on the horizon. Paknadel, Lê, Rosh and Bidikar know when to let the art do the talking and when to fill in the lore gaps to maintain our interest and immerse us in a solid comics experience.

Final Verdict: 8.5/10 – “Giga” #3 promises sinister developments from both godhead and grandiose humanity, with good craft and style from each creative team member.