The Rocketfellers #9 // Review
Roland Rocketfeller had run into something at work. It was bad. Really bad. So bad that he had to go back in time a few hundred years in order to escape it. Now it looks like he may be on the run in The Rocketfellers #9. Writer Peter J. Tomasi continues a pulpy cyberpunk adventure in space and time with the art team of Francis Manapul and Siya Oum. Color comes to the page courtesy of John Kalisz. A little bit more of the backstory of the series is revealed in a darkly futuristic drama set in the future that is Roland’s past.
400 years from now, Roland Rocketfeller is quitting the company. He’s done. The project he was working on had some pretty idealistic notions, but it has turned out to be something that just mght turn everyone into mechanoid golems. The future of the human race might be entirely cybernetic...or worse. And that’s not anything that Roland is gong to be able to live with. So he’s going to quite. Butthe corporation doesn’t exactly want to allow hm to do so. He’s going to find that even opting out of destroying the human race is going to have its costs.
Tomasi takes a lot of time in rendering the central conflict that led the Rocketfellers to escape 400 years into the past. That does’t mean that it feels totally compelling. And though the drama might feel weak and derivative, it still holds a great deal of charm. The complexities that the Rocketfellers are forced to deal with are all quite interesting in their own right. They just don’t feel particularly original. The narrative feels haunted by the stories of similar ensemble adventure sci-fi dramas that have come before it. The characters are really trying to assert their individuality, but they all seem to be trapped in previous incarnations from other sci-fi franchises.
The drama is captured with no small intensity by the art team. The gradual increases in passion quite literally explode across the page with the kind of force that feels quite deliciously visual. It’s a remarkably clever twisting of drama and action. THe forward momentum of Tomasi’s script is delivered to the page with a great degree of graphic momentum. There’s a power to it all that feels quite compelling in places even if the characters seem trapped by those who have come before then,
The series has a chance to really make an impact as it continues to move forward, but Tomasi and company are really going to have to work at making it all feel original enough to make an impact. As it is right now, the series has enough going for it that it really COULD developi into something compelling. All of the right elements are there. It’s just a matter of Tomasi and company extending the storylines just a little bit. The ensemble seems interesting enough to find its own voice. It’s just going to take a few more issues to really develop that voice.
