Wyrd No. 1 review: Super-soldiers gone wrong and unbreakable men!
Wyrd looks like it is going to tell some spooky stories.
Dark Horse is fifth in the comics publishers rankings, with Image at number three, IDW at four, and DC and Marvel constantly shifting back and forth in competition for second and first, depending on what you choose to read. That they are the “Big Two” is undisputed, but since Dark Horse is older than both IDW and Image they have a slightly better grasp on whole and specific corners, like the horror niche, with strange tales like Hellboy, Aliens, Terminator, and now Wyrd keeping their reputation to the high standard that is to be expected of a major publishing house. This Dark Horse release blends quite a few recognizable features into what looks to be a slam dunk from writer Curt Pires, artist Antonio Fuso, colorist Stefano Simeone, and letterer Micah Myers, with backup from Hue Nguyen and a variant cover by the esteemed Jeff Lemire.
Image Comics
The angst of immorality probed, potentially, in Wyrd
The comic opens up in Los Angeles, with a gorgeous sunset that really shows how talented both Fuso and Simeone are, with someone getting drunk and throwing themselves off a bridge. They break their leg and get hit by a car, breaking a couple more bones. A man gets woken up by a phone call and has to go deal with something, presumably the injured person. Our sleeper gets details from SWAT-looking dudes telling him the injured person has healed, and has them open up the back of a van. Inside is a very rude man, known to be the injured person, who must therefore be Wyrd. He and the sleeper clearly have history together, because they talk all chummy, and it’s clear Wyrd works for the sleeper. It’s also revealed that Wyrd can apparently not die, because he mentions that he’ll stop trying various ways to kill himself “when it works”. The sleeper gives Wyrd a folder detailing a mission to Crimea to stop a biological weapon gone wrong, and we learn that Wyrd will be paid for whatever he’s about to do.
Dark Horse Comics
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Wyrd saves an orphan and fights a monster, pierced
The town in Crimea that Wyrd headed to once had 400 people, but now, none lived except a girl whose mother made her hide when a “monster” came through town. He takes the girl with him and his driver, and they head to the closest military base, where gruff soldiers tell the little girl the story of the Baba Yaga. Wyrd somehow gets drunk and ends up feeling the presence of the bio weapon, watching him from the treeline, who looks like a big angry dude. Wyrd heads out to face the creature, and we clearly see what appears to be a bridge piercing on his face. This is perhaps a simple character accent, but the object possibly plays a greater part in Wyrd’s weirdness; either way, more fine work from Simeone and Fuso.
Dark Horse Comics
After confronting the monster, which is a huge ol’ huge dude with a creepy voice who possibly reveals some truths that we will learn about Wyrd later on, they fight, wonderfully rendered in between the monster’s history: he is a failed Captain America-type super-soldier experiment, full of rage. There’s even a panel with an extremely blatant Captain America reference. Wyrd also acts a lot like a certain John Constantine, and the blend of the Big Two seems to work out well here. Wyrd gets smashed up real good, trying to shoot the soldier, but eventually gets the draw on him, blowing his head off. Wyrd says “I don’t break”, even though we’ve seen his bones shatter in past panels. He lands in L.A., gets a suitcase full of money, and heads home in a stretch limo.
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We’re then taken back to 1942, and we see Wyrd, looking the same exact age, debating the hopelessness in getting pregnant during the war with his partner, eventually agreeing that they should have a child. This reveal builds up the intrigue in Wyrd immensely. How does he appear to be the same age seventy years ago? How does he mend his broken bones? Is his name pronounced like “weird” or “word”? What happened to his partner and presumably the child that would be roughly seventy now? Is Pires going to go full Hellblazer, or is he going to lean towards the B.P.R.D., a Dark Horse pillar? No matter what, this is a comic you should be reading. Let us know what you think in the comments section below.