by Warren Ellis & Facundo Percio
collects Anna Mercury # 1-5
the premise: A lethal beauty with an arsenal of high-tech weaponry and the seeming ability to cloud men's minds glides through the city of a mission of... well, that would be telling. What is her secret, who is she, and why is she here? Or there?
the lowdown: Warren Ellis' latest creator-owned effort delivers a premise similar to Paul Dini's Madame Mirage, but with more of an Ellis flavor. Not that Anna is a chain-smoking grouch or anything like that - but this is Ellis doing his science fiction thing. What at first glance looks like a fairly typical urban vigilante story becomes something else as Anna's story is revealed. The story begins at a breakneck pace and keeps it that way for several issues, before slowing down in the last few chapters. It's a pretty effective storytelling method, although it is a bit anticlimactic.
The science fiction-y twist ends up defining the book, and clearly will be the backdrop for any future outings of this character. I'm not really a hard sci-fi guy, although I think Ellis does this sort of thing better than anyone else going right now. At its best science fiction makes you think about the world and the way it works, and contrast that with how the world could be. Ellis definitely pulls that off here, even if he does have to resort to infodump at times to get there.
The art by Percio seems to fit with the Avatar "house style". It's detailed but not overly so. He's able to convey the action scenes pretty well, but doesn't lose much when things slow down. There aren't a lot of shots that will really "wow" you, but overall the book looks good, and despite the Peg Bundy hair the design work on Anna is solid.
the verdict: If you like hard sci-fi this is probably right up your alley. Even if, like me, you're not a hard sci-fi fan this is quite well done and a nice introduction to a new character.
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