Jeff Lemire and Emi Lenox launch their new Image series, “Plutona.” Bearing elements of Stand by Me, The Incredibles, and “Astro City,” the book is a deceptively innocent murder mystery.
Written by Jeff Lemire Illustrated by Emi Lenox
A brand-new heartfelt super-hero series by JEFF LEMIRE (DESCENDER, Hawkeye) and amazing newcomer EMI LENOX!
There’s a pivotal scene in Michael Chabon’s The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay where the main characters attend the premiere of Orson Welles’s Citizen Kane. So inspired by the film’s visual tricks and techniques, Sam and Joe attempt to bring that same ambition to their comic book, “The Escapist.” They turn in this issue centered around a neighborhood following rumors of the defeat of The Escapist and focus on how the community reacts to the news and sort of builds up the myth of the character. In the novel, their issue was more warmly received than Welle’s actual film. Anyway, reading Jeff Lemire and Emi Lenox’s new comic, “Plutona” reminded me immediately of that sequence.
“Plutona” is the sort of book that takes a very small and specific perspective on a much larger incident. It’s told through the point-of-view of these four kids who are all connected to each other, even if they aren’t exactly friends. In fact, the two girls who have the closest thing to a friendship have something more like an emotionally manipulative relationship. All these kids are brought together when they discover the body of the superhero Plutona, fallen in the middle of the woods.
Right away, Lemire and Lenox let you know what kind of book they want this to be. More character-driven and focused on establishing relationship trees, they spend more time helping us understand who all these kids are, and I think that makes more of the story beats more interesting. The story is kicked off with a well-done match cut montage, giving us broad strokes of these kids and the world they live in where superheroes are a very real thing. The idea that there’s this online group of people called the capewatchers, devoted to charting and watching the superheroes in the city as if they’re birds or something is particularly inspired. It’s easy, when dealing with capes, to put the focus on them all the heroic antics all the time, but it looks like Lemire and Lenox are more interested in exploring what it’s like to exist in a place where you’re always in danger of your hometown being destroyed.
At this stage, Lemire mostly relies on broad tropes to establish these kids. Yes, we have obsessive Teddy with his binoculars and specific logs. We have the creative Diane, trying to control her look and come off as cool and badass, but who’s confidence in her room is betrayed by a timidity when other people show up. There’s angry Mie who gets stuck watching her younger brother and doesn’t see much of reality beyond her own id, and Ray, the kid from the rougher home, who steals his dad’s cigarettes and sports a black eye. Lemire often starts his work with archetypical characters like these as a way for us to accept the kids immediately and move on to the meatier bits of the story. Undoubtedly, he will find a way to play around with these conventions as the adventure continues.
Of course, if this book only existed to give Emi Lenox a larger showcase, that would be perfectly OK. Her style is softer, especially compared with a lot of the typical artists you see come out of Image; like Kagan McLeod, her linework is fluid, not overly elaborate or intricate, but something gorgeous and just as confident. It reminds me a lot of Saturday morning cartoons. As always, Jordie Bellaire’s color palette serves well to bring the art to life, accentuating the lines when it needs to, and making this book feel tinged with an innocence.
There’s also a cinematic rhythm to Lenox’s art. From the way she frames the characters to when she pulls back to a full shot, she’s concerned with making sure you know what’s going on and where it’s happening. She manages to capture some genuinely touching moments yet still maintain the mysterious elements of the plot and the innocent tonal atmosphere. Seriously, Lenox is great and I hope this platform lets so many other people connect with her art.
Continued belowLemire also writes and draws a short backup called “The Last Adventure of Plutona,” which is absolutely heartbreaking. I think this is the first art of his since we’ve seen since “Trillium” wrapped and I think it’s easy to forget how well his sketchy and grungy style can lead to some real emotional moments.
Quiet but curious, “Plutona” #1 is mostly concerned with establishing characters and making sure we’re empathetic with them. It might be a slow burn of a book and you might not get the typical superhero explosive chaos that typically comes with the genre, but I think that smaller view is far more effective and interesting, especially here. These kids only know so much, and I think that ignorance and that desire to know more will help drive the tension for the rest of the series.
Like with a lot of his work, Lemire offers an assured, if not entirely unique, spin on these concepts. But he’s walking proof that a strong storyteller can pretty much do anything with any set of conventions and still make them interesting. This time around, the talented Lenox only helps him realize this. Together, the two of them are conjuring something that totally feels like it will be special.
Final Verdict: 7.8 – great storytelling and fully realized characters help establish the intrigue and tension.
