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Madman Atomic Comics #1 Posted 14 May 2007 Writer: Michael Allred Artist: Michael Allred Colors: Laura Allred Publisher: Image Comics  5.00 out of 5 Stars Reviewed by Adam McGovern

I don’t know if T.S. Eliot read comics, but I think he’d approve of the way Mike Allred’s spiritual quests lead him to fresh-eyed arrivals at the places he began.

Allred’s fullest energies of the past few years have been devoted to a graphic-novel adaptation of the Book of Mormon, though his sci-fi and superhero work was always an oasis of gentleness and whimsy against a grim ’n’ gritty grain (even the violent and sexed-up X-Statix had a sheer kinetic joy that was affirmative of life and a sense of social consequences that was highly moral though never moralizing). And so it is that Allred’s exploration of faith finds him back with his signature creation Madman, one of the all-time best storybooks for grownups (while a cover blurb for “The ride of this life” promises a pulp yarn with metaphysics aplenty).

It’s reminiscent of the former Cat Stevens’ philosophical pop comeback last year, though of course Allred’s life was saved by rock ’n’ roll of a different kind — his space-messiah saga Red Rocket 7 was grounded in the ’70s glam fringe and the new Madman story’s title, “Jumping Silent Cars That Sleep at Traffic Lights,” is semi-lifted from a line in David Bowie’s “Panic in Detroit.”

Yet the first adventure of the new series is no in-joke, but a terrible secret; Madman finds himself wandering around a decimated version of his once-charming Snap City as a literal deus ex machina goads him to recall a buried realization — not just of the shadowy-assassin past we already knew this reincarnated innocent once led, but what seems to be some Hellboy-ish apocalyptic destiny. Along the way the character’s history as we know it (or think we do) is recapped in a deft device for bringing newcomers up to date with the series’ preceding 800-ish pages while intriguingly raising more questions than it resolves.

It does make sense that all we’ve seen until now could be an illusion, since the strip has always proceeded at the pace and logic of a dream, right down to the next-gen Little Nemo look of its main character’s pajama-like costume. In superhero events we’re asked to accept plot contrivances; Madman had been an accepting soul of another sort so there are high emotional stakes in him and us finding out he may not be who he thinks he is. Inner odysseys are the most interesting, and this one is set up with skillful urgency.

To paraphrase T.S. Eliot twice in one funnybook review, I had expected April to be the coolest month for offbeat comic fans, with not just Madman’s return but the announced premier of Steve Gerber’s Doctor Fate and Fred Van Lente’s Super-Villain Team-Up. When those both got postponed the first step fell to Allred alone, and from what he’s shown us so far I can’t wait for the journey ahead.

 

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