Geiger #22 // Review
The glowing man and the northerner are surrounded. There are quite a few guns being pointed at them. By kids who might just be younger than the guns they’re holding. It’s not a good situation for anyone involved, but if they can get hostilities to fade a little bit they might just be able to get somewhere in Geiger #22. Writer Geoff Johns and artist Gary Frank continue their post-apocalyptic time traveling sage with colorist Brad Anderson. The series continues to wind in interesting directions as Geiger gets a bit closer to some of the fundamental mysteries of the world.
They’re known as the St. Louis Strays. Ashley Arden had been through the area. She taught them how to protect themselves. Taught them how to arm themselves. And now they're completely suspicious of anyone who is a stranger. Which makes perfect sense given the nature of the situation. However, these two guys might actually be able to help them out a little bit more than arms training would suggest. And maybe it will allow Geiger a little bit of a chance to reconnect with a side of himself that he seems to have lost so long ago when he lost his family.
Johns paint the script in broad strokes. They seem to be strong enough emotionally that they can hold together even though there's a kind of a cliché going on here. There's a real Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome thing going on with the hero of the waist, running into a group of children. And it's quite likely that that post apocalyptic trope goes even further back than that. But there is a kind of emotional connection that Johns deliver to the script that fuels remarkably satisfying under the circumstances. It's a nice, little reprieve from what might otherwise be unrelenting darkness.
Frank is allowed to deliver a little bit of levity to the unrelenting darkness of the title character. There's a strong sense of balance that seems to be hitting the page. Yes: there's quite a lot of decay and bleakness about the visuals. However, a father looking after a couple of kids that aren't his own is strong enough emotionally that it lens some relief to the visuals. There's even more than a little bit of emotional intricacy at being drawn into the faces of the characters. There's quite a bit of nuance around the edges of the mood as it hits the page.
It's possible that this particular series works best where there isn't a single identifiable antagonizing character. There's no arch villain here. It's just people trying to survive. There have been moments in the past where Johns was going for a more traditional looking villain. And it's nice that he's moved far enough away from that to just explore the mystery of what's going on without having to dive into more traditional good versus evil archetypes that seemed to be inhabiting the page earlier on in the series. With any luck, Johns and Frank will be able to maintain the energy and momentum, but they found in these past couple of issues.
