“No.1 with a Bullet” #1

It’s the Dystopia of Today, Tomorrow in “No. 1 with a Bullet” as the shattered walls of social media come at a heavy price for everyone involved.

Cover by Jorge Corona

Written by Jacob Semahn
Illustrated by Jorge Corona
Colored by Jen Hickman
Lettered by Steve Wands
Her social media, strong. Her variety show segments, a hit. Nash Huang is at the top of her game. But when the iRis Shutter contact lens hits the market, Nash’s life is personally invaded. The latest leap forward in “technological progress,” these contacts not only play video or augment reality…but also record footage. Fighting to keep her life together after a leaked sex tape goes viral, a clingy super-fan is the last thing on Nash’s mind…but that’s exactly when the bodies pile up and the terror begins. From the bestselling team that brought you GONERS, comes NO. 1 WITH A BULLET!

A title like “No.1 with a Bullet” conjures images of some military-inspired action or revenge series. Or in a creative twist, a dark fantasy. Ultimately, it’s neither of those. Jacob Semahn, Jorge Corona, and Jen Hickman’s new series is actually a piece of socially conscious science fiction that feels like the spiritual prequel to the Brian K. Vaughan, Marcos Martin, and Muntsa Vicente “The Private Eye.” Set in a not too distant future, social media dominates. As technology progresses issues of consented surveillance, outright voyeurism rear their ugly heads. “No.1 with a Bullet” has all the ingredients to become a richly themed piece of social sci-fi, the first issue just doesn’t make the best case for itself in a single issue.

At the center of “Bullet” is  the iRis Shutter contacts. They’re a pair of microscopic cameras that record anything you see. They feature currently ill-defined augmented and virtual reality capabilities. In an essay talking about the social influences on his and the creative teams mind, Jacob Semahn name checks the ill-fated Google Glass. A more contemporary and relevant example would be Snapchat’s Spectacles. Spectacles are expensive but cheap and gaudy looking sunglasses sold from vending machines, with a pair of cameras in the rims that record and save video to your phone. This is a more relevant example because, like Snapchat’s failure to create a coherent need for Spectacles, “Bullet” doesn’t quite make the case for why these are the macguffin and powering the series plot in this issue. They are vector by which personal recordings are leaked; however, the world Nash Huang inhabits is already littered with recording devices and means of tracking. These are just one more link in an already long chain. While the point of view of the leaked material would be different, the actions “Bullet” is dealing with are so of the moment wrapping them in the veil sci-fi feels unnecessary.

While the first issue doesn’t do its best setting up the plot of the story, when it comes to developing its central character and motifs “Bullet” is highly successful and might make reading this issue by issue a worthwhile endeavor.

Nash Huang is a queer Asian woman working as assistant to talk show host-pitchman Jad Davies. Semahn’s script does a surprisingly good job placing the character in a variety of environments and situations that show who she is in these first 22 pages. We see her act as intermediary between her boss and his ex-wife. Hang out with her girlfriend making lame (but adorable) jokes and looking at faux-Twitter instead of watching Jaws. And drink with her TV friends as they lament their labor status and gossip. One page, delightfully rendered by Jorge Corona and Jen Hickman, is a montage of her day filling in for a go-fer. All of these sequences highlight how normal she is, she’s like your average twenty something or there about. With how the structure comics tend to go, you normally get one big character point for an issue. “Normal” is a big point but the ability by the creative to illustrate that normalcy in multiple ways makes Nash feel like a well-rounded character by the time things hit the fan at the end of the issue.

That instance on normalcy is, at first, counter to traditional storytelling. Western protagonists are always “special” or else they wouldn’t have a story told about them. After reading this issue a couple of times the question of “why is she ‘famous’” kept recurring. But that lack is the point. Nash isn’t famous in the twentieth century sense, like her boss or other celebrities such as the mentioned Vanessa Green. She isn’t even famous by twenty-first century standards which is to say she isn’t Kardashian or other digital celebrity types (although are conception of fame in the age of social media has undoubtedly shifted to a more personalized perspective). The only thing that seems to point to why she has a social media following is her status as an assistant to Jad Davies and appearing on his show from time to time. Those appearances don’t equate fame or power either, all they seem to do is make her an object for creepo commentary via faux-Twitter because she is a woman being distributed in mass media.

The motif of surveillance and voyeurism is evident by the first page. Not the first page with panels and word balloons, the credits page. Letterer and designer Steve Wands turns the credit page into a social media portal with direct messages from a fan and Nash’s faux-Twitter bio. It implicates the reader as one of her followers in the same way the credits in Fahrenheit 451(1966) treat the viewers as a subject in an illiterate world. Once the comic begins proper these ideas are continued in more visual fashion as the comic splits between Nash’s perspective in AR and the equally otherworldly audience members watching her. To show the convergence between reality and augmented reality, panels negative spaces are filled in with a sickly yellow as anonymous audience members are reduced to Joker-esque smiles. As the issues continues digital screens are recreated that also store geo tagged data and create an omnipresent but incorporeal following always. Traditional Screens appear everywhere. And there is also the good o’ll fashion analog form of surveillance: stalking. Much like the character of Nash this all treated as completely normal, a consented surveillance and exposure.

Corona and Hickman take a very disorienting post-modern approach to design in this world, everything is off kilter as panels and pages switch between traditional grid and more open bordered page layouts. The color scheme is varied, always saturated but still garish pigments. This makes for a refreshing change from our glum rain filled cyber punk dystopia.

The normalcy of everything reinforces the core dilemma of the series about how our consent to social media has eroded and changed our conception of privacy in ways we as a society haven’t really taken the time to consider. How the Internet of Things acts as a digital extension of pre-existing misogynist hegemony and not the idealized Public Square or toolbox to combat that toxicity. Nash becomes the subject of revenge porn, even though she isn’t “famous” like Vanessa Green or the various real-world celebrities who have been hacked and their privacy violated. She’s innocent, her worst sin is not paying attention to Jawswith her partner. Because of the iRis contacts, the series gets the cover of science fiction and treats this as revelation and the world as a dystopia of tomorrow. When this is the dystopia of today. When Twitter has for years failed to properly manage its harassment problems and the internet in general ability to make pop up communities for this ilk. While issue #1 doesn’t make the best case for what the plot of this new book will be or act as an episode, it more than succeeds at setting up its characters and ideas in 22 pages.

Final Verdict: 8.0 – “No. 1 with a Bullet” has all the ingredients to be an excellent story and comic book, but they it doesn’t come to a boil in this first issue.