Demo Vol. 2 #4

Written by Brian Wood
Art by Becky Cloonan

I find it hard to describe the feeling I get right before I start a new issue of Demo.  I never read the solicitation text for comics like this, and avoid all hints of what might be inside them before reading.  The reason for that is so that I can experience the comic with as few preconceived notions as possible.  Looking at the cover and the title, it didn't take much to guess what the 'hook' for the story would be - that someone is able to breathe underwater.  It's what Wood and Cloonan do with that hook that is so amazing.

The book opens with this guy, Colin, stuck in traffic on a bridge.  When his car overheats, he jumps off the bridge into the water below.  From there, we flash back to his childhood summer vacation at a run-down trailer park, where he becomes the target of a group of local bullies.  It is through their dumping him into a lake that he learns of his ability, and uses this new knowledge to engage in a very adolescent form of revenge.

While many of Wood and Cloonan's Demo characters are haunted by their actions, few have them stick with them the way Colin's do him.  There is clearly so much more to his story than what we are given in this short comic, but that is the beauty of their work - that they are able to strip a story down to its barest elements is what makes their stuff so interesting.

Cloonan outdoes herself with her water-based scenes.  Having read tons of Sub-Mariner and a good selection of Aquaman comics, it's clear that very few artists get water the way she does.