Geiger #1 (2024) Review @ImageComics
Summary: We are off to the races! We finally have our team set, a future possible adversary hot on their trail, and endless possibilities ahead. One month seems like a very long time after reading this fun, quick, but jam packed story.
5
Radioactive
Background – Geiger just wants to be let alone. Jeez.
Writing – The plot is simple for this “first” issue of Geiger. Our very reluctant hero saves a town from a band of thieves and rabble rousers, but upon seeing that he is the famous “glowing man” the town is terrified of him. Geiger, having stopped in the town just to peruse their library, sadly picks up the book he was reading, stuffs it in his bag and departs with his two headed dog Barney. He is followed out of town by a heavily scarred man wearing an old-fashioned suit of armor.
Upon discovery, Geiger attempts to scare this man off again (having met him during the events of the Ghost Machine one shot). He exclaims to want to help Geiger avoid the army who apparently have a Geiger counter and are tracking him. The man muddied the trail by blowing up some toxic waste and when asked what he wants, he exclaims that he wants to be like Geiger.
Let’s stop there for a second and examine this idea. Why do all these people want to be like Geiger? I feel like we have met numerous people who want to be like him (although I totally acquiesce to the possibility that I’m just remembering this guy from the one shot). The man states that he wants to atone for working for the King of Vegas and his military force. Geiger begins to tell him that he is not a hero or whatever standard this man has built him up to in his mind, but they are interrupted by the military.
Geiger is momentarily taken out and the man rushes to defend him, but Geiger is quickly back in the fight and dispatches them easily. Geiger tells him to leave him alone and departs, even though the man tells him of a possible second man just like himself who was cured of his radiation problem. We then get a quick flashback to happier times, mainly being Geiger and his wife’s vow renewal. Back in the present, the man is about to kill himself when Geiger stops him. Geiger reluctantly allows the man to join him, and we finally learn this guy’s name, which is Nate.
The issue ends with a man crackling with electricity getting closer to Geiger and Nate’s location.
Johns paints Geiger as a VERY reluctant hero. All he wants is to be left alone with Barney and his collection of books, but circumstances and people keep drawing him back in. He doesn’t understand why anybody wants to be like him, not realizing he is special. All these other people we’ve met so far have had their lives destroyed, and while Geiger’s normalcy was also shattered when that bomb fell, he also gained something very few people were able to: power.
A quick mention of the library book Geiger leaves town with. It is a book called “Blood Meridian” by Cormac McCarthy. A quick google search shows that it’s a book about the old west in which a teenager has experiences with a gang of scalp-hunters. While I’m sure it was just an Easter egg, it is a cute one.
Artwork – It’s Gary Frank, which for non-comic book readers means this book is gorgeous! Our hero crackles with energy while still maintaining a solid form. The difference between the world before and after the bomb is still startling even after reading all the one – shots and miniseries that have featured Geiger. The old world was so alive and vibrant, almost in a quaint 1950’s kind of way. There were neighborhood barbecues and in this issue in particular, a vow renewal between Geiger and his wife. It’s kind of hard to put into words, but if I had to narrow down how the art looks (at least for the before world) it’s timeless.
As for the “after” world, while we aren’t in full Mad Max territory, it gives off an old West vibe mixed with the after effects of modern war. For example, In the very first panel of the book, there are the requisite wooden houses one might see in an old West town, but there is also clearly a broken-down McDonald’s in the background. These bandits and the military look like a hodgepodge of modern technology and whatever they can find. Even the knight’s armor is nothing more than a deconstructed hazmat suit with a knight’s helmet and some fairly ineffective body armor. The world fell in one moment and the remaining people are trying to pull themselves out of the rubble.
Final Thoughts – While I know it’s not the actual 1st issue of this series, the first proper issue gets this book off to a fun start. We finally have our team set, a future possible adversary hot on their trail, and endless possibilities ahead. One month seems like a very long time after reading this fun, quick, but jam packed story.
Final score: 5 out 5
Comic Details
Publisher: Ghost Machine (Image)
Writer: Geoff Johns
Artist: Gary Frank
Colorist: Brad Anderson
Letterer: Rob Leigh
Cover Artist: Gary Frank & Brad Anderson
Genre: Superhero
Format: Monthly
Release Date: 04/03/2024
About the Author
Matt Fischer Lover of all things nerdy. Reader of Comics for over 25 years. DC encyclopedia. X-Men historian. Spider-Man and Marvel lover. Indie side guy.
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