Pariah Volume 1 TPPublisher: Dark Horse Comics
Release Date: January 1, 2014
Price: $14.99
Creator(s): Aron Warner, Philip Gelatt, Daniel Chabon
Format: 112 pgs., Full-Color, Trade Paperback
ISBN: 978-1-6165-5274-9
Age Rating: N/A
ICv2 Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
Genetically engineered super intelligent humans known as Vitros live among ordinary humans in more or less peace until an explosion at a military weapons lab is blamed on them. Now branded as traitors the Vitros are on the run, hiding and scheming to stay free, together, and alive as they're relentlessly pursued by the authorities.
We get to see Vitros experience through the viewpoints of four very different individuals; Brent Marks just wants to live a "normal" life, Lila Ellerman uses her gifts to help everyone, while Robert Maudsley uses his to exploit and manipulate people. Finally there's Franklin Hyde who just wants to remain safe while searching for a political solution to the conflict.
The gifted vs. the unremarkable is a standard science fiction trope which has become common comic book fodde,r but reader expectations get subverted in a plot that manages to avoid a good number of genre cliches. It definitely earns points for mostly abstaining from overwrought soap opera and gratuitous fights to instead focus on the existential dilemma of the other. But while it succeeds in being more "real" the traditional X-Men take on the subject, we’re not given nearly enough details about how things work in this world. For example, what possible pretext could there for keeping super genius Brent in an ordinary high school? And the somewhat pokey plot isn’t exactly helped by the static, smudgy art.
--Steve Bennett: Writer and retail services consultant.
