This month we join the anti-psiot group Project Rising Spirit and our protagonist group lead by Toyo Harada as they infiltrate the PRS super sub and extricate weird alien lady, destroy her weird alien lady machine and liberate her weird alien lady pet brain. It’s a tense little story that’s well told. The aforementioned weird alien lady has decided to take her pet brain and switch sides because what Toyo Harada wants to accomplish is next to impossible which is more interesting to her than the battle for money business plan of Project Rising Spirit. It creates an interesting dynamic because you don’t know when the next ‘more interesting’ opportunity will arrive leaving her alliances and loyalties always in question. Also the constant insistence of the weird alien lady that someone impregnate her is creepy and unsettling.
Last issue we ended with the jig being up when they finally realize that Harada and crew are actually on the ship and work towards reactivating the psiot dampeners. This issue they accomplish that leaving the high and mighty Harada a powerless old man. I guess I never saw it before, but Harada is a rather frail looking old man who uses his psiot powers to appear young and vital. It’s a subtle, little character quirk that speaks volumes about the ego of Toyo Harada.
With Harada left powerless things are looking grim until Mech Major blows himself… out of the sub and then blows himself again… back into the sub’s command room and disables the dampeners allowing Harada to literally dissolve the competition with his massive… mind powers. We end the issue still not off the sub but hopefully we’ll move on from this bit rather quickly next issue. The long set up was nice but I don’t know if we really need 3 full issues of escape off a sub, I’m already kind of over the setting.
The story continues to be hypnotic as we learn the history of the utopia presented in the first issue. The exact mechanics of that utopia are interesting in figuring out how what is unfolding currently in the story will result in the final product that is already established. There is vast grey area here with questions like “Do the ends justify the means?” and “How far is too far when creating an ideal world?” and it’s an area where good people do good things for the wrong reasons and bad people do good things for the right reason. Ultimately it will be interesting to see just how many bodies that utopia is built on.
Score: 3/5
Imperium #6 Writer: Joshua Dysart Artist: Scott Eaton/Wayne Faucher Colorist: Brian Reber Publisher: Valiant Comics Price: $3.99 Release Date: 7/1/15 Format: Ongoing; Print/Digital