Still on the Shelf #52 - Quantum: Rock of Ages - Black Eyed Susan

Originally published March 29th, 2004 on www.ComiXtreme.com. This work is, of course, © Craig Reade.

Who doesn’t love alternate reality comics? Such genred titles generally meet with at least moderate success in comics today. All you have to do is look at titles like Marvel’s Exiles, or several DC Elseworlds titles to see that is a thriving story concept in comics. It has also found great success in other mediums, Orsen Scott Card’s “Tales of Alvin Maker” and Pastwatch, and the television show Sliders are also good examples.

Something that the latter two examples have in common versus many of the comic incarnations is that they are retellings of actual historical events. Such “What If?” Stories capture the imagination of the reader, and open a vast array of storytelling possibilities. What would have happened had the South won the Civil War? What if Hitler conquered the world? These are solid foundations to build a captivating story on, and this approach can be used to great success.

Quantum: Rock of Ages, a twelve-part series put out by Dreamchilde Press, takes this concept a step farther. This story takes the reader through several different universes, each one unfolding in a radically different way because of one or two minor changes in history. People from each of the timelines must use powers granted to them by a fragment of a Quantum Silica stone imbedded in their body to try and stop the destruction of each of their universes.

Cast of Characters

Nick Vargas owned and worked at a music store/café called Tastee-Tunes. One evening he began to experience excruciating migraines, and began to have what he thought were hallucinations. He stumbled outside to get some air, right into the path of an oncoming truck. Rather than be crushed, he simply vanished and appeared on the side of the street, perfectly unharmed. As time went on, he discovered that he could indeed control this ability to teleport, and began to experiment with it more and more. His newfound powers took yet another turn as the migraines continued. Eventually, a piece of stone with a strange rune emerged from his forehead, and he began to shift not only through space, but into other, alternate dimensions.

Frederich Stoltz was a scientist under the employ of the Nazi Empire in an alternate universe where Hitler had emerged victorious in World War Two. Hired by the Nazi government to research time-altering technology, Stoltz worked in secret to discover a way to undo the Nazi tyranny by stopping it from ever happening in the first place. Nazi archaeologists discovered an artifact known as the “Quantum,” a spherical stone covered in mysterious runes thought to hold mystical powers. While experimenting on the stone, it shattered, tearing holes in the fabric of space-time, sending shards of the stone into different universes. These fragments became embedded in several people in many different realities, the largest of which becoming lodged in Stoltz’s chest.

Stoltz, like Vargas, was also endowed with certain powers by the Quantum Silica. His powers are less tangible than those of Nick Vargas- he has the ability to sense the ebb and flow of time and space, enabling him to detect incursions into his reality and track the bearers of the other stone fragments.

The only other “Quantum Bearer” introduced to this point is Billy Capra, a vagrant living on the street’s of Nick Vargas’s hometown in a universe where the world was ravaged by a Nuclear War in 1987. Nick was a man with no ambition, no drive at all to make anything of a life which he thought was barely worth living after the war. He even attempted to sell the stone for a mere fifty dollars after it first appeared in his palm. He soon discovered that he could “summon” any object he so desired, and started down what he thought was a path to a perfectly content, gluttonous life. He was discovered on the streets by Vargas and Stoltz, and was turned to the greater purpose of preventing the destruction of the multi-verse.

Thoughts

Quantum: Rock of Ages does not seem all that heavy at first, but you soon realize that it does take some careful reading to really get a grasp of what is going on. Once you have a sense of the details of the story however, it becomes a rather interesting and enjoyable read. This is a title that would very much appeal to fans of the television series Sliders- the band of “Quantum-Bearers” bounces back and forth between alternate realities on a quest to discover their remaining counterparts. All of the pieces of the stone must be brought back together, or each of the realities will be destroyed by its power.

This title did not jump out at me, at first. I had to read through the first issue a second time to really understand what is going on. Normally, that might be considered a bad thing, but in this case it really is not. Generally stories like those in Sliders, or another similar show have a rather simple mechanism for the jumps- Quantum has a method but it plays a much more diverse role in the story than other similar plot devices. Not only does it function as the cause of the destruction of several universes; it is also a granter of power not unlike CrossGen’s sigils. Each Quantum-Bearer is affected in different ways by the stone, and reacts quite differently to the emergence of a hunk of rock from their body. There is a great deal of explaining to do in the way of “set-up,” and so far Philip Clark has done an excellent job of doing so, without completely losing the reader.

The choice of villains in this book might seem tired – but Clark also has an interesting take on the all-too familiar theme of Nazis. Adolph Hitler is long since dead, and his empire is ruled by his son. The Nazi’s of Stoltz’s universe have achieved the goal of global domination, and are not about to let anyone, especially one of their own scientists, unravel decades of hard work. They, too, have the ability to track the heroes of the story, but have not yet confronted them directly in another reality, since they too want to gather the stones to prevent the destruction of the universe, but they would also like to use the power to their own ends.

The art, of course, is grayscale, but it is very well done. With a lot of bouncing between alternate realities on a moment’s notice, you would think that the scenes would become jumbled. To the contrary, the art team on this title does a fantastic job of working with the writer to make each reality distinct and original. Unless you are supposed to be confused about what is happening, you understand clearly that there has been a reality shift. Universes that have been visited in the past are being referenced again. Subtle clues help the reader identify the different universes – a time-altered swastika is usually seen in Stoltz’s universe, for example, and buildings in Capra’s universe are almost always damaged in some way, be it by cracked pavement or broken glass. I can only expect this trend to continue as more universes are introduced, and more unique Quantum-Bearers.

Bottom Line

Overall, while an interesting story, this is a pretty heavy title and probably not something to be read lightly. There is a great deal of foreshadowing in the first issue, and a lot of the references made then have not yet resolved themselves in the regular story. Overall it is a good read, it just requires a little patience to get through the set-up. Fans of sci-fi and reality hopping shows like Sliders and Quantum Leap will surely enjoy this title.

The first two issues of Quantum: Rock of Ages are available now, each with a cover price of $2.99. Issue #3 is due out soon, and was solicited in the recent issue of Previews. You can ask your local comic shop to order you a copy, or you can pick one up online at quantumcomic.net. The website also has a great deal of in-depth information about the story and characters, and is a good place to turn to for a more detailed look at this title.

Credit Where Credit is Due –
Quantum: Rock of Ages is
Written by Philip Clark,
Drawn by Ozzy Longoria,
Inked by Supriya Kalay,
with Grayscales by Mauricio Mandara (Robert Ashcraft, Issue 1).

Still on the Shelf Extra-

Normally, I prefer to stick to a single title in each column. However, at the recent convention I attended, I came across several interesting titles that merit some attention. Rather than devoting my column to these titles for the next few months, I have decided to add this semi-regular feature into the mix. Normally I have pretty strict rules about what sort of title I cover, in several cases, no matter how good a new book may be, the title is just too new to do anything more than a regular review for. Such is the case for an upcoming comic from Mad Yak Press, written by Newsarama columnist Patrick Neighly, entitled Black Eyed Susan. It certainly caught my eye and is very much worthy of some extra attention.

The first issue of this title is fresh off the press, and is due to ship in May of this year. It is the story of a mechanic named Melanie McDonaugh who wakes up one day to find that the planet has been invaded, and virtually decimated by a Martian invasion. The whole feel of the first issue is pretty engaging. Neighly does a fantastic job of conveying Melanie’s confusion about just what is going on, and her frustration is dealing with dealing with those few she meets who cannot, or are unable to give her real information about what has happened to all of them.

The real star of this book is the artist, Donny Hadiwidjaja. I think it is safe to say that we will be seeing a lot more of him in the future. The art is stunning in this issue, and beyond that, the artistic storytelling is brilliant. A lot of the plot in this first issue is conversation-free, yet the story is conveyed just as clearly as if there were words. This issue is worth checking out for the art talent alone.

Black Eyed Susan is a bimonthly ongoing series, and the publisher has promised that it will have a very strict release schedule. The fist issue is a whopping 48 pages for a cover price of $3.50, each additional issue will be a more regular price of $2.95. I have to recommend that you sample this title when it debuts. You can check out the publisher’s website, madyakpress.com, for upcoming news on this title’s release. A stunning debut, with an outstanding story. Recommended!