Enigma Cipher #1 - Mobile Edition

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Enigma Cipher #1
By Hervé St-Louis
February 19, 2007 - 20:34

Boom! Studios
Writer(s): Andrew Cosby, Michael Alan Nelson
Cover Artist(s): Greg Scott

A university professor assigns his graduate class the task of deciphering an enigma code he found in books that had not been used in decades. However, a shady agency wants to stop the professor and his class from discovering anything from this enigma code. As each one is eliminated by various secret agents, only one, a girl named Casey, survives. She must convince a rogue police detective that her life and the country might be in dire danger.

Reading this issue felt like reading a how to create a suspense trailer without the heart, but with all the technical details aligned. So here are the ingredients. First, all close associates of the professor are killed. The killers miss the opportunity to kill one of them. Nobody believes she is innocent and she is framed for the various murders. She cuts her hair and dyes them. A rogue police detective, after interviewing her, believes her. There is an assassination attempt in prison and finally, a shadowy agency with a license to kill anyone.

Technically, everything works. All the motivations are there, however, there is no spirit to this story. It’s but a wild goose chase using a grocery list of clichés we’ve all seen from so many comic books and comics. Nothing makes this particular story different or interesting. I suppose, if one enjoys the genre, one will find all one could ever expect. However, the magic touch to pull all together is missing. At this point, we don’t even have a clue about what the secret revelation and how it would affect the world may be.

Scott provides a good visual narrative that matches the plot very well. His style is dark enough to covey all the emotion a suspense thriller like this should. However, all of his expertise is wasted on a story without inner demons, to make it compelling.

6/10