Elsewhere #1 Review

Up, Up and Away

Writer: Jay FaerberArtist: Sumeyye Kesgin, Ron RileyPublisher: Image ComicsRelease Date: August 2, 2017Cover Price: $3.99

Between Extremity, Plastic, Regression, and a few others (greatly omitting Underwinter which is not a treat at all), Image one word titles have been a treat to jump into completely blind. Jay Faerber’s Elsewhere is yet another Image book I’m going to jump into and just see what it gives me. With a cover that seems to promise Amelia Earhart in a far off fantasy world I’m looking forward to what seems like a what-if tale in the adventures of Amelia Earhart.

We come into the book as two men, alien of some sort, seem to escape some kind of captivity through a sewer system. They’re chained together and quickly need to seek cover from overhead floating spotlights on patrol. As they’re making their escape they hear a call for help as the two bicker on whether to help someone or to avoid the chance of getting caught. After explaining the calls for help possibly bringing attention to them anyways they make their way to rescue who we find out is Ameila Earhart.

We get some decent but generic characterization of our two escapees that does a fine and quick job of setting up their dynamic, but it doesn’t go too long before setting up the crux of the book. Amelia Earhart comes into the book and both parties are thrown off by the others appearance. Amelia finally calms down and explains the situation of having plane problems, with the word ‘plane’ grabbing the men’s attention, and in need of finding her partner Frank. It’s here where we find out they were captive of a great tyrant, but it seem Amelia falls in line with the idea a little too quickly.

When they once again almost get spotted they run a bit before coming upon what looks like a small barn or stable. They conveniently find some flying creatures that are called steeds at which point Amelia conveniently finds out she is a natural with. When they get away a bit and land the men reveal to Amelia that they had actually heard the word ‘plane’ before from a man that was captive along with them. She of course wants to rescue him which causes another instance of the dynamic between the two men as they both differ on whether they’d like to  help or not. Their plan then goes in to play as Amelia gets herself captured in order to be put in the cells with the other man in the cells. We also get a small glimpse of the tyrant of the story as he presides over a crashed airplane in his throne room before going off to a cliffhanger that has Amelia coming face to face with another lost in history name.

Overall I thought this issue was the quintessential “OK first issue”, wasn’t really much more, but wasn’t all that bad either. I thought it was a bit generic in its set up, but still built an interesting enough what-if to keep me going. With the twist coming down to the reveal of another lost name of history it fills me with the idea of possibly even more showing up which piques my interest in the series a bit more. I could be setting myself up for disappointment but the idea of time lost and disappearing people showing up could be quite interesting.

Bits and Pieces:

A bit generic in the overall set-up and dynamics of the characters, but the art and premise to the what-if story makes up for it and keeps me at least a little bit interested in coming back for more.

7.2/10