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A review by mschlat
Nowhere Men, Vol. 1: Fates Worse Than Death by Eric Stephenson
4.0
The high concept here is "What if four super-scientists took the pop culture spot of the Beatles?". So our Fab Four in this world get together, form the World Corporation, try and change the world, break up, form rival corporations, influence the "science punk" movement, and start screwing everything up in their later years.
The story is a fascinating melange of comics and text pieces (interviews, histories, etc...) with time jumps all over the narrative. And, actually, the thrust of the plot isn't the Beatles stand ins --- it's twelve other scientists up on a secretly abandoned international space station who have caught a body-transforming virus and have to escape to Earth. The World Corp. four (actually three for most of the book) are just the folks pulling the strings and seeing the consequences of years of progress and mistakes.
At times, the tone of the book gets a bit flat. There's so much world building and science talking that characterization and emotion gets pushed aside. And the art, as gorgeous as it is, can be a bit confusing. (Apparently, there's a new artist for the next arc.) But even with all that, I want to read the next volume.
The story is a fascinating melange of comics and text pieces (interviews, histories, etc...) with time jumps all over the narrative. And, actually, the thrust of the plot isn't the Beatles stand ins --- it's twelve other scientists up on a secretly abandoned international space station who have caught a body-transforming virus and have to escape to Earth. The World Corp. four (actually three for most of the book) are just the folks pulling the strings and seeing the consequences of years of progress and mistakes.
At times, the tone of the book gets a bit flat. There's so much world building and science talking that characterization and emotion gets pushed aside. And the art, as gorgeous as it is, can be a bit confusing. (Apparently, there's a new artist for the next arc.) But even with all that, I want to read the next volume.