The Chimpanzee Complex #3
Reviewed by David O' Leary
THE CHIMPANZEE COMPLEX #3
Story by: Richard Marazano
Art by: Jean-Michel Ponzio
Cover by: Jean-Michel Ponzio
Publisher: 9 th Cinebook
Cover Price: $13.95
Reviewed By: David O' Leary
Book Summery : After the disaster of the Mars mission, Helen wakes up from cryosleep in a derelict shuttle. Some of her crew are dead, some missing. They have drifted for decades and are utterly lost. All she has left are messages from Earth—the last link with her daughter Sofia—and the certainty that they will die alone out there. But are they truly alone?
The conclusion of a mind-twisting trilogy on space, time and the strength of our dreams.
"Civilisation"
So where do I begin to start lauding this book. How about it being the best series of 2010. I don't think that the title of best series this year is understated and either do the reading public who got it nominated for an Eagle Award. This mind bending trilogy comes to an end with this 56 page issue and it answers the questions that have dogged the cast since the first issue.
Richard Marzano has crafted an immense piece of writing over the last three issues. It is a plus that the book comes in at 56 pages an issue as the 170 odd page count was utilised to the maximum. Nary was a panel in the entire series wasted and using film style cinematography to tell the story only served to pull in the reader even more.
We have seen the first two issues be a suspenseful thriller and an emotional rollercoaster. I really thought that the character of Helen's daughter Sofia was written with as much authenticity as could possibly be written and she was for me one of the stand-out characters of the book. But in the final issue we don't see a whole lot of her as the story takes place roughly seventy years in the future. But that does not mean that Sophie doesn't play a very important part in the emotional side of the story. Helen is devastated to find out that she has missed her beloved daughter's entire life by being in stasis for decades. After coming to with Alexsa she scours the ships computers to find that Robbie had sent messages into space not knowing weather Helen would get them or not, for four years after contact was lost. At the end of the last issue we knew that Sophie had run away from home and Robbie was desperately looking for her. We find out through the messages that Robbie sent that she went city hopping always staying one step ahead of him but because of a promise he made to Helen he never stopped looking for her. Those among you who might think that talking about a series of events that take place years before would not make as much of an emotional punch as they should would be wrong. All along we have seen Sophie hurting over not having her mother around as she would have liked but the role is reversed here. We see from information garnered in the latter part of the book that Sophie became an astronaut herself and using her mother as an inspiration explored the stars herself and became the first astronaut to leave Earth solar system.
Marzano also explains the mystery of the returning astronauts from the first issue. We knew from book two that there was a problem with the laws of physics when humans go to space and Yuri Gargarin had some grasp of the situation. It turns out that sending astronauts into space did indeed cause a problem with the laws of physics and something akin the final series of Lost caused an anomaly where an astronaut went home from his mission al a Neil Armstrong and crew but also caused a second Armstrong and crew to remain in space with no clue as to how to get home. It happened with Gargain and Co. and also with Helen and her crew mates. It provides Helen with some comfort that Sophia came to live with someone who was a mother to her even though that someone was Helen she would never have the memories but the comfort of the situation.
Jean-Michel Ponzio I have found out does NOT use any photo referencing for his art which only serves to blow me away even more with the quality of his pencils. He is easily one of the most detailed artists working today and deserves a much wider audience to see his work. The story would not have carried as much punch and impact as it did if not for him. It appears that the creative process is fifty fifty here and working in tandem with Marzano has produced a magnificent example of comics done great.
This is an unbelievably top notch book. I said it with book one and book two and I will say it again with book three but SOME American companies would do well to look upon this book as a benchmark of quality to aim for and cut out this nonsense that we are seeing lately.
Rating the Issue
| Story Story: Overall 10 Concept - 10 out of 10 Plot - 10 out of 10 Dialogue - 10 out of 10 |
Art |
Importance |
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Reviewer Bio
David has been with CR since June 2008 and started out as a reviewer and has expanded to do a couple of columns for the site also; starting with 28 Words Later with artist Declan Shalvey and later 5 Minutes With... where he talks with the industries best and brightest from Kubert to Moore.
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