The second issue of “MPH” continues to be a fun treatise on the age old question: “what would you do if you had super powers?” That fun both contrasts and spites the book’s harsh realities of urban American life; drugs, crime, gangs, and poverty.
Written by Mark Millar
Illustrated by Duncan FegredoA good guy dealt a tough hand, Roscoe’s found the perfect Get-Out-of-Jail-Free Card in the form of super-speed pills called MPH. Now that he knows who put him away, he’ll find that revenge is a dish best served…lightning fast! The all-new Millarworld Universe zooms ahead at breakneck speed with Millar and Fegredo’s urban adventure tale.
“MPH” #2 is straight up wish-fulfillment in the best way possible. What do you do when, after ending up in jail because your idol and mentor double crosses you and tries to steal the love your life, you discover super speed in the form of a spectacular little pill? First, you get even; second, you do everything else you’ve ever wanted.
Under the effects of the MPH drug, Roscoe’s visionary mentality is completely liberated. No longer forced to focus and dream of what the future holds, he is now able to reach out and take it with no consequence. The result is a fairly major and suitably rapid shift in character for the once idyllic and lovable drug runner. However unsettling this sudden conversion towards gross materialism and wanton thievery, Roscoe retains a few redeeming qualities.
In this issue, we learn an interesting and important bit of information about the MPH drug: one pill grants 24 hours of super speed. Faced with that knowledge and a limited number of pills, Roscoe doesn’t quite go the route you might expect based on his behavior. Rather than hoarding the remaining pills for his own use, he immediately and freely shares them with the people closest to him; his girlfriend Rosa and best friend Chevy. With his new super powered team in tow, Roscoe plans to make the most of this opportunity, setting himself and his friends up for life.
Millar and Fegredo do a fantastic job of capturing the pure thrill one must feel when traveling at superhuman speeds. Roscoe and his friends race from coast to coast, walk between rain drops, crash an Indy 500 race and run on water. And what better way to experience such joy than with friends? The trio of Roscoe, Chevy, and Rosa have a very enjoyable chemistry, making for a group of characters that are instantly relatable, in spite of their extraordinary circumstances.
Duncan Fegredo deserves specific recognition for his work here. Faced with the daunting task of presenting the sensation of movement amidst a static world, using a static medium, Fegredo rises to the occasion. The artist’s vision of moving faster than the speed of sound feels remarkably fresh. Weaving through traffic trailing clouds of dust, jogging cross water with a surprising lightness, and leaping far more than tall buildings in single bound, Fegredo’s characters capture an exhilarating sense of speed and movement.
There’s only one point in the issue where Fegredo’s presentation feels at all faulty. Later in the issue, a character does a comical double take after one the speedsters thrashes his gang members. Fegredo depicts this range of movement in a traditional comic book fashion, with the character facing both directions at once. However, there are no lines or blurring to indicate motion, giving the oddly humorous impression that character does in fact have two faces. It’s a small nit-pick, but after doing such a strong job depicting something as obtuse as breaking the sound barrier, a simple double-take seems like small potatoes.
Super speed as a power has always been somewhat more abstract than standard flight or super strength. The ability is a bit of a blank slate, a deus ex machina allowing whoever is pulling the strings to manipulate the specifics as need be. In that regard, it’s no wonder the power is so closely tied to time travel. Millar and Fegredo do a fairly consistent job of defining their super speed. At some points the characters act and function at seemingly normal speeds, while the world stands frozen around them, similar to the Quicksilver scene in Days of Future Past. However, the characters seem able to kick it even further into overdrive, crossing thousands of miles in minutes. While this does seem slightly inconsistent, Millar and Fegredo seem to have a grasp on just how the pills work. After already defining the specific stages of the pill’s affects on its users, one character asks a question that few would likely even consider: how can these characters hear each other when moving faster than sound? While the question is quickly brushed aside, there’s certainly the suggestion that we’ll soon learn more about MPH.
Continued belowThe most likely candidate for bestowing this knowledge is Mr. Springfield, the only other man to have taken MPH. In the custody of the FBI, Springfield offers he is service and knowledge of MPH to assist in the capture of Roscoe and his friends. Just how this will game of cat and mouse will play out is far from clear, but it adds an interesting wrinkle in the otherwise happy-go-lucky issue. One has to wonder just what motive Springfield has for assisting the Feds, who have kept him under lock and key for the past 30 years.
Mark Millar is known for creating simple high concepts that instantly place their hooks in readers, and “MPH” is yet another check in that column. With likable characters and a unique blend of peppy super hero crime fiction, this team has added another enjoyable world to the growing Millarworld universe. While the book isn’t quite as grand or powerful as “Jupiter’s Legacy” or “Starlight,” it’s race against the clock provides a strong impetus towards picking up the next chapter. There’s an almost Breaking Bad-like thrill in only about a week’s worth of pills for Roscoe and his friends, and the feds hot on his trail. Will all their dreams come true, or is this tale destined to end in tragedy? That sounds like a story worth following.
Final Verdict: 8.2 – Buy
