The Oddly Pedestrian Life of Christopher Chaos #1 // Review
Christopher is sitting on the sidewalk at night. He’s clearly troubled. He’s looking straight through the panel at the reader. And he’s asking for help. Then a vision hits. A splatter of blood. He closes his eyes and shakes his head. That’s when he starts to tell the story. It’s the opening of The Oddly Pedestrian Life of Christopher Chaos #1. Writer James Tynion IV provides an idea that’s developed for the series by writer Tate Brombal. Artist Isaac Goodhart renders the story into the visual with the aid of colorist Miquel Muerto. It’s an intriguing premise for a series that feels offbeat enough to register an interesting narrative pulse in its opening issue.
All his life, Christopher knew that he was different. He can’t really describe it. Maybe it’s the way other people have always looked at him. Or maybe it’s the fact that he’s always seen the world in equations and patterns...always seeing ways to make the world better. It’s like he’s seeing the threads that weave the whole world together. The world calls to him, but he doesn’t want to be different. He wants to have friends and be normal. The more he tries to ignore the world, the louder it gets...
Tynion and Brombal are working with standard cliches that have been kicking around comics for decades. It’s understandable. Everyone wants to be the outcast with superpowers who sees the world fundamentally differently. It’s difficult to tell right away in the first issue of the series whether the writers have found a way to execute an idea that’s truly new. It’s been tackled from a variety of different angles in a million different superhero characters over the years. One thing’s for certain, though: Chris seems like an interesting kid. Even if he’s not terribly original, Chris has a way of connecting with the reader, and that’s NOT easy to manage.
Goodhart reaches right into the jaws of human emotion with his art. The quirky indie art style fits the personality of the title character quite well. Goodhart is balancing a very tight line between weird and approachable in his characterization of Christopher. There’s a sense of real vulnerability about him as he is in the heart of every panel, even if he isn’t in the center of every panel. He’s present throughout the issue even in those places where he isn’t visible. The visualization of his powers doesn’t feel too terribly revolutionary. (A bunch of vague equations and shapes and things appear in a luminescent overlay from his POV.) It may look a little silly, but it DOES give the reader some insight into the character.
The first issue actually does a really good job of introducing Christopher, which is all that’s really called for in a simple dramatic series. Christopher Chaos makes a firm impact in his first appearance on the comics page. Now that he’s done so, it’s time to start lowering in the deeper conflicts that will come to define him in the issues to come.
