Nowhere Men #4

Written by Eric Stephenson
Art by Nate Bellegarde

Nowhere Men is one of the most interesting comics being published right now.  Writer (and Image publisher) Eric Stephenson explained this series before it began as "Science is the new rock and roll", and it's been interesting to see how that has played out.  Ostensibly, the series is centred on four guys who were, at one time, the Beatles of science, but the book is set in the present day, and these guys are missing, presumed dead, reclusive, or comatose.

The scenes involving the original World Corp. scientists are a little disjointed, as we are are left to fill in the blanks about what has happened between them, although this issue gives us a lot more information about them.

It's been easier to follow the storyline about a group of scientists who were abandoned on a World Corp. space station after coming down with a strange disease.  Many of them teleported to Earth, and are showing increased signs of metamorphosis caused by the illness.  One of them has become a gigantic red creature, while another more or less turns to gas in this issue.  For others, the transformation hasn't been revealed yet.

I'm clueless in terms of where this series is going, and that's why I'm so interested by it.  Stephenson is allowing his characters to carry the book's momentum for the most part, especially in the scenes involving Ellis and Strange, and each new issue has me more curious about where it's all going.

This is a book worth checking out.

Nowhere Men #3

Written by Eric Stephenson
Art by Nate Bellegarde

Three issues in, I still have no idea where Eric Stephenson is going with Nowhere Men, his 'scientists are the new rock stars' series at Image.  On the surface, this book is supposed to be about World Corp., a company founded by four rock-star famous scientists in the 60s, but the reality is that they are barely in the book.

Instead, much of the focus is on a group of scientists who were living on a space station funded by World Corp.  They contracted some kind of inexplicable virus, and the company decided to simply wash its hands of them and leave them in orbit.  One of them built a teleporter though, and most of the crew stepped through last issue.

Now, they've appeared in different places on the Earth, and their disease seems to have changed some of them quite a bit.  A couple of them, stranded in the far North, do not feel any effects from the cold, while another, who looked like a giant scabbing pustule when we last saw him, now appears more like a bright red comic book strong man à la The Thing.  That guy somehow gets into a conflict with a group of Mad Max style hippies, which really makes no sense to me, but there it is.

I find that the randomness of this book makes it pretty appealing.  The four central scientists, of whom only two show up this month, are all characters straight out of a Warren Ellis comic, while the other characters feel more grounded, despite being involved in some pretty crazy situations.  I feel like this book could run the risk of never completely gelling in terms of its disparate story elements, but for now, I'm curious enough to keep buying it, especially since Nate Bellegarde's art looks so good.

Nowhere Men #2

Written by Eric Stephenson
Art by Nate Bellegarde

I was intrigued enough by the first issue of Nowhere Men to come back for the second, and I think now I'm hooked.

This series appears to split each issue between two related stories.  The first half of the book concerns the scientists who founded the company Worldcorp, and became the celebrity scientists of their age.  Now, those that are left, are old men, and they find that they are cut off from the world they helped create.  There is some intrigue among these guys, but it's a little unclear just what's going on with them, at least so far.

More interesting is the second half of the book, which has been following a group living in secret on Worldcorp's space satellite.  They've all come down with a strange virus that is causing parts of their body to scab over in the most unappealing way.  Last issue, they learned that they've been cut off by the company, and are basically being left up there to die.  They began working on a secret teleportation device, which should make it possible for them to get home, even though that threatens to infect the world with their virus.

In this issue, the device is made operational, although there is not enough power to properly test it.  Most of the crew sees now choice but to walk through the gateway anyway, but one person starts to argue against it, and things get pretty crazy.  We don't really know these characters, but Stephenson writes their scenes so that we care about what happens to them, and I am excited to see where they've ended up.

Nate Bellegarde is doing a great job with this book, giving it a Jamie McKelvie feel.

Nowhere Men #1

Written by Eric Stephenson
Art by Nate Bellegarde

When I think of Eric Stephenson as a writer, and not as the publisher of Image Comics, two things come to mind - god-awful work on Rob Liefeld's god-awful comics back in the day, and hipster romance books like The Long Hot Summer.  That last one was enjoyable, but he's never been a writer whose work I've sought out, and in the last ten years, he really hasn't written much.

I was intrigued a little by Nowhere Men though, mostly because Nate Bellegarde's name has been popping up in a few different places lately, and I'm always willing to try a new Image title.

This book owes a little to the success of The Manhattan Projects in making people want to read about scientists again, as Stephenson gives us a slightly confusing first issue.  When the book opens, we are introduced to four scientists who have just formed their own company - World Corp (they are all supposed to be brilliant, but that is the best name they can come up with apparently).

A couple of pages later, and we're watching footage of an indestructible gorilla tearing through a lab.  We learn that it's been ten years, and that there are only three of the World Corp. crew still around, and they do not get along with each other.

From there, we are introduced to a group of people who are working for World Corp. somewhere, and they are all getting sick with some unknown disease.  They discover that their funding has been cut, and that they are to remain where they are under quarantine in perpetuity.  The last page reveals where they are (which, so far as surprises go, wasn't that momentous).

Stephenson spent most of this issue on exposition and introducing a large cast of characters.  He piqued my interest a little, and I definitely liked Bellegarde's art, which is a little like a cross between the Luna Brothers and Nick Pitarra.  I'll probably pick up the next issue, but I'm not sure if I'm in for the long-haul or not.