Posted on: September 1st, 2010 Comically Challenged: One Month To Live #1
“What would you do if you only had one month to live?” It’s a popular question. I’d like to think I’d spend its entirety working out my will, deciding who gets what from my movie collection. It’s really all I have to give to the world. And that, kids, is the sound of my mother’s tears of disappointment. But hold on there a minute: “What would you do if you only had one month to live AND you had super powers?” Eeeeenteresting.
Guess what this week’s book is? Marvel’s One Month to Live. You are obviously one of the over anxious readers that doesn’t even bother to read the title of the post. Now, if you’re anything like me you have no doubt spent some time thinking about how cool it would be if you had super powers. But what if you lived in a world where some people did have powers and you didn’t. You’re just the exact same as you are now, working that same crappy job, with the same crappy life. You had all that and actually got to see people out there making a difference in the world via supernatural gifts. That. Would. Suck.
Dennis, our main character, lives that life. He’s just a dude living with very ordinary problems. One day, he tries to make a difference and save someone’s life in a very not-super way, and ends up getting involved in a rough spot with hazardous chemicals. Resident Brain Reed Richards tries to help him out and finds that Dennis has cancer and the toxic waste has only sped things up. The guy’s got a month to make the most out of his time and just found out he upgraded in the super power department. Now what?
Do you bring down the man? Do you help those in need? Do you ensure that your family is all taken care of? To what extents would you go? Who will you piss off in the process? That’s what’s being asked in One Month To Live. (Side note, Marvel: I refuse to call this book OMTL after seeing all the OMIT ads. I’m sick of you and your acronyms.)
What’s so different about this book? It’s a five part mini series but it’s a collaboration project. Rick Remender and Andrea Mutti teamed up on this issue but next week’s book is scripted by Rob Williams with Shawn Moll and Koi Turnbull on art. That’s right, sucka, I said ‘week’. The installments for this five partner drop weekly. A big plus for the short attention spans among us. Also in the list of contributors are Stuart Moore, John Ostander, Shane White, Graham Nolan and Jamie McKelvie.
I pretty much dug the holy hell out of this first issue. It has a similar feel as Kurt Busiek’s Marvels, in that we’re focused on a normal guy living in the world of super heroes. But in this one, the guy gets a chance to join the forces. The brilliant part is, you really don’t know what he’s going to do or which road he’ll take. They’ve added an extra level of desperation and responsibility. Original concepts paired with original writing. How nice. Look, you know how this story ends. He’s going to die. This is a perfect example of storytelling that doesn’t hold its strength in the ending, but in the journey of arriving there. And despite the fact that I just sounded like an inspirational poster, those are truly the kind of stories I want to read.