It can often seem like storytellers confuse ‘prequel’ with ‘prologue,’ when telling the story of a time before. Functionally the prologue is a brief pre-introduction meant to build context on the state of the world. That functionality is why prequel stories in a story world where the concept of “lore” (be it from superhero, sci-fi, or fantasy) becomes a driving interest tend to disappoint. It shifts the narrative focus off dramatizing character and becomes an act of exposition for unimportant macguffery. Treating a story that happens to be a prequel as if it were prologue undermines that individual story’s ability to function on its own.
Written by Eric HeissererCover by Raul Allen and Patricia MartinIllustrated by Adam Pollina
Colored by David Baron
Lettered by A Larger World Studios
Before the fall of the Harbinger Foundation… Before the opening pages of SECRET WEAPONS #1… Academy Award-nominated writer Eric Heisserer (Arrival) and legendary artist Adam Pollina (X-Force) present all-new, standalone prelude to the year’s best-selling independent limited series! Meet high school senior Nikki Finch… She’s a gifted athlete with an unusual set of medical ailments and high-aptitude test scores that have drawn the attention of an obscure and little-known NGO calling itself the Harbinger Foundation. With seemingly limitless resources at its disposal, the Harbinger Foundation has just offered Nikki a place in their newest class of recruits for a prestigious, but secretive, mission: to unlock her hidden potential via the invasive, dangerous and often deadly process known as “psiot activation”… If they succeed, Nikki could become an extraordinary example of Toyo Harada’s vision for the future of post-human biological superiority. If they fail, she’ll likely die on the operating table…or be locked away for future study in the mysterious research facility known as The Willows… An essential new chapter in the Harbinger mythos is about to be revealed as Nikki Finch – a future founding member of Livewire’s squadron of misfit telekinetics – relives the never-before-told saga of her recruitment and activation at the hands of Toyo Harada’s Harbinger Foundation in a must-read standalone special from two of Valiant’s most accomplished storytellers!
Which brings us to “Secret Weapons” #0 ‘Nikki’s Story,’ one of several forthcoming prequel stories from writer Eric Heisserer and various art teams dealing with the individual experiences of Livewire’s Team before the “Secret Weapons” miniseries. Considering the overall self-contained and quality craftsmanship from Heisserer and artists Raul Allen and Patricia Martin in the original series, the idea of a prequel series seems unnecessary but typical of this kind of comics publishing. Thankfully Heisserer and the art team of illustrator Adam Pollina and colorist David Baron smartly use their status as a prequel and the medium of comics to tell a story that manages to function on its own, even if the character statements aren’t exactly revelatory.
The desire to tell more stories of a character makes a certain kind of sense. Filling in this character map also has the effect of eliminating the little moments transitioning between defined segments. Part of what makes ‘Nikki’s Story’ interesting, and worth considering, is the manner in which the creative team tell it. Nearly every panel is marked by ever shifting dates representing the passage of time from being recruited to the Harbinger Foundation, to activation, Harbinger’s fall, and the aftermath. A month can pass in a single page, or pages will form little strips (reminding the reader that the page is just one big panel) to expand these small in-between moments. It’s a novel storytelling choice to tell this with the moments you don’t normally see in comics.
This one panel per day approach leads to a very strict formal presentation. The entire issue is told in four horizontal panels with a vertical reading orientation. Like the brief moments they document, this scheme can, at first glance, feel light and a bit too quick of a read. Thinking about the page as just a collection of individual panels actually misses some really beautiful mirroring and repeated imagery Adam Pollina peppers throughout the book. Nikki rarely moves from the center of the panel, for instance. However, what this formal tick does a good job of representing is all the life stuff happening around Nikki at all times, these panels are often bursting with little moments and energy. Pollina is not Raul Allen but he does a good job of drawing in a similar key. The biggest difference is some of the outside lines seem to be a bit weightier. The real artistic cohesion comes from colorist David Baron doing a fine job of sticking with the flat coloring style while upping the luminosity.
Continued belowThe creative team is interested in showing the passage of time, from formal ticks to in universe ones like Nikki’s hair. While their form is the same the repetition of reading and the slow accumulation of information leads to several twists on it that make for dramatically impactful moments that wouldn’t have worked if this book where done a different way. This book is designed a certain way, but it doesn’t only want to do it one way. The core character arc of Nikki is pretty normal, but it’s the manner in which it is presented that makes it affecting.
With each panel primarily acting as a single scene it can also lead to other panels feeling slightly overwritten. Looking at some of these beefier examples, they don’t appear to go over the general word count limits Kelly Sue DeConnick recommends. The lettering studio that did this book also does a good job with placement so nothing important is being obscured. It’s just a matter of these balloons appearing to be much larger because of the scarcity of dialog in previous panels.
Another note the lettering: for an issue built around marking the passage of time, the dialog lettering actually does a poor job of it. Nikki meets one of the fellow Harbinger hopefuls and he introduces himself as being from Manhattan, Kansas. There’s supposed to be a bit of a delay for the gag, that he’s is from Manhattan, NYC. This delay comes in the form of a single period for a break, not an ellipse. It’s the least effective moment in the book for two reasons. That single period break doesn’t read well — it’s to0 small. This compounds the problem because the balloon does nothing to represent the break. Here it was all just lumped together, so when this hopeful posit than explains the joke it becomes not anti-comedy pure dead comedy. This failure at humor is contrasted with a success that is built on typical lettering structures.
It seems fitting ‘Nikki’s Story’ exists in something of a liminal state on the spectrum of prequel storytelling. It functions well enough as a standalone issue and you could easily give this to someone with cursory knowledge of Valiant’s world and it would have emotional impact. At the same time, it doesn’t feel all that necessary or overly enriching to the character, and with its dating makes a fetish object for the epistemological fantasy this kind of storytelling creates. What elevates this book is the formalism behind it. “Secret Weapons” was a fine series with nice art and style, but didn’t really try to put restraints and contend with the comic book as a medium the way ‘Nikki’s Story’ does. It’s interesting to see a writer like Eric Heisserer work with more artistic collaborators and delve deeper into comics as a form instead of a glorified side project.
Final Verdict: 8.0 – ‘Nikki’s Story’ is a more interesting examination of form and functions impact on storytelling than as a pure storytelling experience. The kind of book that could’ve gone off the rails at many different spots, but didn’t. That it achieved both goals to the degree it did is commendable.
