Geiger #4 // Review
He's a loner, but he's not alone. Not entirely. There's a night who seems to be following him around. He's got armor and everything. Which might be kind of strange with the fact that it's America and it's post apocalyptic and everything. But things get weird at the end of the world. Such is the state of things in Geiger #4. Writer Geoff Johns and artist Gary Frank continue a heroic post-apocalyptic saga with colorist Brad Anderson. Though the series is far from original or inventive, it continues to develop a distinct and distinctly enjoyable adventure serial in its latest installment.
They set a trap for Geiger’s two-headed dog Barney. There was a fresh steak set out for him. Then he got electrocuted. Now they're threatening to kill him if Geiger doesn't show. Naturally he's going to want to make an appearance. But they may get more than they're expecting when the super powered radiated wasteland warrior comes to reclaim his pet. Naturally, he's going to be extremely outnumbered. But naturally, that's not really going to matter to him. However, when he arrives, he may find that there's a lot more at stake than he first considered.
Johns paces the story quite well. The overall flow of action is admirably executed. The conflict is introduced right away. Tensions increase before the explosion of aggression, which is the central action sequence of the issue. And then there's the cliffhanger ending. It all comes together quite well. While none of it is terribly original, it manages to come across on a page in a way that, truly enjoyable. The dangerous loner stalking the wasteland knows that he’s getting into danger and he’s prepared for it...but not quite prepared enough to avoid the inevitable cliffhanger.
A good portion of what sells the distinct voice of Geiger is the visual reality of it. Frank has developed a really unique visual signature for the character. The robe figure with the glowing green skeleton really feels like something that is wild and fresh while also being very, very familiar. The wasteland spirit of vengeance feels like someone any comic book reader might have run into the decades, but he is his own person. Thanks to very distinctive work on the part of Frank. Of course, the visual reality of him as he executes the action would be nothing without the color work of Anderson, who breathes distinctive visually atmospheric radiance to the end of the world.
Johns is really trying to develop a whole world here. He’s been developing it for a few years now, but it’s still missing something. There’s some sense of novel innovation, but not nearly enough to distinguish it in the sprawling history of post-apocalyptic sci-fi. The clever fusion of that genre with a carefully-crafted superhero universe has been an interesting exercise, but Johns hasn’t developed enough from there to keep Geiger fresh a couple of years out from his debut a few years ago..
