Infinite Vacation #3 - Mobile Edition

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Infinite Vacation #3
By Zak Edwards
November 3, 2011 - 11:17

Image Comics
Writer(s): Nick Spencer
Penciller(s): Christian Ward
Letterer(s): Jeff Powell
Cover Artist(s): Ward
$3.50 US

It has been an extremely long time since the last, also delayed issue of Nick Spencer and Christian Ward’s “Infinite Vacation,” and I am feeling like the book’s tone and attitude are not as I remember them. I will openly admit that I haven’t reread the original two issues, as maybe I should have, but the book feels different, but I’m not sure this impacts the book as much as the delays have in other ways.

Infinite Vacation is certainly a different book. Initially, it quite famously used photography in an aside that jarred many readers, but this issue takes this much further, becoming jarring in other ways that make the photography and artistic deviations welcome. The issue also seems to apologize for the delays (which comes up in the recap page under a comment that says “when is the new release coming?”) with a page expositive plot replay, which is much more jarring than anything Ward’s art has done in the past. In the page, the protagonist Mark explains to the camera what has happened so far with extremely slapstick melodramatic expressions that do not complement Ward’s style or the Spencer’s tone. After this initial moment, which only takes up a single page, the book is more back in line for at least a little while. Spencer’s writing is a little more confident in his humour here, much to the benefit of the book, and either I forgot how funny this book is, or this issue is just really funny on its own. I suspect the latter, but there are moments that are genuinely hilarious, I was laughing out loud at moments that were better constructed than the light-hearted plot recap.

However, the book transfers quite quickly from this humour to an extremely disturbing scene involving the antagonist, a serial killer Mark, raping another Mark and castrating him, all with alarming detail. I’m not attempting to make any sort of moral judgement, which would be entirely unproductive, but the sudden shift is jarring in itself. Coupled with the plot recap, the book is a little all over the place. On the other hand, the artistic deviations, principally the video for the singularists and the explanation of a singular universe, are welcome and well constructed elements that both drive the plot forward and add to the experience. While the explanation as to why the singularists are right was fairly complicated for someone with little experience in physics, the ideas are interesting and I appreciate the willingness to experiment with the comic form. Overall, the book needs to get back on it’s feet, the delays are felt throughout and this book, easily one of the best mini-series this year, is falling sideways.

Christian Ward’s art was less stunning this issue, it feels rushed despite the long delays, which I suspect are due to Nick Spencer’s rocketing career at the larger publishers. I appreciate his approach to colouring and detail, the book still looks really good, but relative to his earlier issues, this doesn’t astound. A lot of pages are constructed fairly generically, relying on repetitive images of talking heads to convey Nick Spencer’s long expositions and conversations. For an artist who seems to enjoy experimentation, these panels and pages could have looked better with differing angles or really anything. Of course, there are other places where Ward does try out things, some work really well, some don’t, but I appreciate the attempt more than anything else. Overall, the art is kind of like the script: a little jarring, not up to previous quality, and still better than most things on the shelf.

Grade: B- Still good, but I know it could be so much better because they’ve proved so before.