Written by Nick Spencer
Illustrated by Christian WardIn a world where travel between alternate realities has become a massive commercial enterprise, Mark races to uncover the truth behind his many mysterious deaths. Meanwhile, the brains behind The Infinite Vacation suddenly take a keen interest in his struggle. And just who is that beautiful girl he keeps running into?
The first issue of industry darling Nick Spencer’s creator-owned miniseries Infinite Vacation received massive amounts of acclaim from critics, including from our own David Harper. After a bit of a delay, the second issue has finally hit the stands. How does it match up to the first? Find out after the cut.
Have you ever read a comic that makes you go “wow” from issue to issue? For me, there are two: Warren Ellis’s Planetary and Daytripper by the brothers Bá and Moon. With a two (out of five) issue streak going for it, though, Infinite Vacation is almost halfway to being number three. Okay, so maybe two issues isn’t quite enough to judge whether or not a comic will stack up to my two favorite comics of all time, but to get me to say “wow” even once is a feat in and of itself (okay, maybe not that big of a feat, but it’s still incredibly impressive).
I find that a good way to judge the lasting power of a series early on in its publication run is to compare the first issue with the second. If the first issue is great, and the second is even better, then you most likely have yourself a winner. If the first starts with a bang, and then drops with the second, it’s often an indication that the creators may not have the steam to push their ideas beyond their conceptual roots, even if those concepts are fascinating. Obviously this isn’t always the case, but this is just what I’ve observed in general. Infinite Vacation definitely falls in the former camp.
Everything that I loved about the first issue is just a little bit better in this issue. The basic exposition is out of the way, so Spencer can go wild with his story, with the expository bits that remain present seamlessly folded into the narrative (come on, this is a pretty complicated concept, some clarification is going to be necessary). Mark’s character seems a bit more “alive” in this issue, and less like someone who we are just tagging along with to see this strange world. Again, I attribute this to Spencer getting most of the heavy lifting – in regards to the setting –out of the way last issue, giving him a chance to really stretch his legs. This issue made my jaw drop more than once (that ending!), but it also made me laugh my ass off at some points. Never has the sentence “We hate him” been funnier.
And let’s not forget artist Christian Ward, ladies and gentlemen. How does he do it? I’ve flipped through the issue numerous times already, and each time I have caught something that I missed the first time through. There is a lot of extravagance to his illustrations, but underneath their garish exteriors lays a sea of subtleties, in both his lines and his colors. You really see this with his different Marks: yes, they’re dressed differently, and have different hairstyles, and so on and so forth, but they feel different, too. The body language changes from Mark to Mark, and so much so that the most untrained viewer would be able to tell “Mark Prime” apart even if a different set of clothes was slapped on him.
Infinite Vacation is one of those comics where everything seems to be going right. First, there’s an excellent concept behind it. At it’s core, that’s what makes the comic cool: the idea of vacationing through various realities is just really neat. Then we have Spencer’s writing style, which really shines in this issue. The pacing is flawless, the characters are fascinating, and the dialogue is interesting. Everything that a writer can and should try to accomplish, Spencer is pulling off. Finally, we have art that is not only awesome, but complements the writing almost flawlessly. The only thing that’s left is a consistent level of awesome from issue to issue. We won’t know until the mini’s end whether or not Spencer and Ward will pull this off, but something tells me we have nothing to worry about.
Final Verdict: 9.6 – Buy it!
