The Internet is so abuzz regarding Jonathan Hickman’s “Manhattan Projects” that it seems to have forgotten “Secret” already, even though it is only moving into its second issue this week. I, on the other hand, was greatly impressed by the debut of “Secret,” and awaited the second issue with bated breath.
Written by Jonathan Hickman
Illustrated by Ryan Bodenheim“NEVER GET CAUGHT”
We learn the secret past of the Steadfast Security’s chief operator as clues begin to appear regarding the mysterious KODIAC protocols. Someone gets out of jail, someone gets divorced, someone comes home dead.Check out the next chapter of the most thrilling new series of the year, SECRET #2: NEVER GET CAUGHT!
This issue of “Secret” seemed to primarily be concerned with setting up what is to come, but there is one scene that stands out as more than just buildup: the one that opens up the comic, regarding Marcus and Grant’s childhood. Jonathan Hickman gets a lot of hype for being a man with grand ideas, which he does have in spades, but scenes like the opening one of this comic show that Hickman is not a writer who uses his big ideas to hide a lack of knowledge regarding the core tenants of good comic writing. The actions happening in the scene — specifically, the climactic moment, while certainly within the realm of possibility — need a bit of convincing to win over the reader. Say, for example, that a similar event happened to a friend of yours while he or she was a child, and you told a friend about their misfortune. Your friend’s response, most likely, would be along the lines of “No way.” As readers, we too would be prompted to make such a remark, were it not for Hickman’s dialogue; while intense, the dialogue helps bring the violent scene out of the realm of possibility and into the realm of reality in the reader’s mind, leaving the reader in a daze as they change their mind from “He wouldn’t,” to “Would he?” and, finally, to “…dear God, he did.” The rest of the issue is certainly carefully scripted, but nothing else in the issue comes close to the promise that moment makes of just how intense this series is going to get.
Ryan Bodenheim is the perfect partner in crime for Hickman on this series. Just as Hickman has to with his script, Bodenheim needs to use his artistic skills to change “Secret” from what could be into what is. He not only meets the demands of his job, but exceeds them. Bodenheim’s characters are as real as can be, and not in the Alex Ross sense; no matter how stylized they may or may not be, his characters stand like they are human, move like they are human, and make facial expressions like they are human. His work demonstrates the balance that is required to make great comics: without his stylization, the weapon wielded in the earlier-praised opening scene would not seem so sharp, but without his grasp on body language and facial expression, the pain inflicted would not be felt by the reader. Bodenheim’s panel-to-panel motion is perfectly readable, easily leading the reader from one moment to the next without the slightest loss of information. His level of detail is impeccable, but he never enters the realm of “busy.” Anyone who is trying to learn how to make a comic without relying on bells and whistles and who is not reading “Secret” is sorely missing out.
The comic’s secret weapon, though, is colorist Michael Garland. To the layman’s eye, this praise seems undeserved — after all, Garland almost always uses one kind of color per panel, sometimes even per page. Garland uses his colors masterfully, though; whether he is only using yellows or grays, every page seems richly textured and full of a kind of depth many colorists could not achieve with a more “complete” palette. The one-color rule is made even more effective when it is broken: everything else may be yellow, but a gun that is fired cannot help but being cold, hard gray; a blade is red with hunger until it is satiated. If only these two issues were counted, Garland’s work would still be considered some of the best currently in the business. The mark of a true artist is not in the ostentatious and gaudy, but in how that artist uses the bare essentials.
“Secret” has not garnered the same praise as Hickman’s other new creator-owned series, “The Manhattan Projects,” but both books easily deserve to be mentioned in the same breath. Hickman, Bodenheim, and Garland work with the synchronization that many comic teams dream of, and are not only working well with each other, but with the reader as well. Though it could be argued that not much happened in this issue, it hardly seems to matter; this comic is well put-together enough that it can be enjoyed just as much as a fine piece of sequential art as the component of something greater.
Final Verdict: 8.8 – Cash, with which to buy.
