Z-View: Deep State #1 by Justin Jordan and Ariela Kristantina

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Deep State is an on-going series created by Justin Jordan published by Boom Studios.

Writer: Justin Jordan

Artist: Ariela Kristantina

Colorist: Ben Wilsonham

Letterer: Ed Dukeshire

John Harrow doesn’t exist, and his job is to make sure that other things don’t exist, too. At any given time, the government is running dozens of black book operations, experiments that aren’t on any official record and are never acknowledged to exist. Some of these are innocuous. Some of them are monstrous beyond reason. And most of the time, they go as expected and the public is never the wiser. Most of the time. John Harrow’s job is to handle them when things go wrong, and do anything to make sure the government’s secrets stay just that-secret.

*** Beware – spoilers may be found below ***

The Good

  • Kristantina’s art really grew on me.  I thought Wilsonham’s colors worked well.
  • “I can tell you who killed JFK.  I can tell you what really causes cow mutilations.  I can show you what Tesla’s last project was, before we made him insane.”
  • Jordan provides back-story while at the same time moving the story forward so that we don’t have the feeling of being bogged down with exposition.

The Bad:

  • What happened to the first astronauts [and they weren’t American] to land on the moon.
  • Answering the door late at night to find a “Russian” Cosmonaut wanting in.

The Ugly:

  • What happens when the Cosmonaut reaches out to touch someone.

 

Deep State #1 should appeal to fans of The X-Files and the Twilight Zone.  I’ll be back for more!

Rating: 4 out of 5