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Saturday, March 3, 2012

Global Frequency


"Hit or Miss...or Miss"

Volume 1: Planet Ablaze ( Issues # 1-6, 2004)
Volume 2: Detonation Radio ( Issues # 7-12, 2004)

Story: Warren Ellis
Art: Various artists, though all issue covers are by Brian Wood.


The Story:
Volume 1 cover
The idea behind this series is brilliant. Imagine an independent agency that groups 1001 agents worldwide, each of them being an expert in his/her specific field, like for example nuclear physics, psychology, History, sports etc... That agency connects all best-in-class talents around the world to help countries, cities or governments, when a danger threatens innocent citizens, if not the entire planet. Every agent can be reached via a special cell phone that operates on a unique frequency, globally. That agency is called the Global Frequency.

Sounds awesome doesn't it? I love the idea of having tons of different people with different backgrounds, different cultures, all brought together in this sort of All-Star team of life. Such a team sounds invincible, it could kick the ass of the most bad ass sci-fi threats, like the most accomplished bionic man gone rogue. So when my friend told me about these books, I was all excited and had somehow high hopes for Planet Ablaze and Detonation Radio. However I had the same kind of feeling as when I eat in a restaurant, the experience is good, but I would not recommend it to friends before recommending other places first.  I felt that Global Frequency was good, yet still closer to a miss than a hit. So what is it that left me feeling that the books were OK yet not great?

One of the main reasons is the lack of continuity between each story. Indeed, each book collects 6 issues, which are not necessarily meant to follow each other. There are no connections from one story to the other, and there are only two characters who reappear in every story (I'll come back to the characters later). Though the issues were published independently, and each issue involves some kind of end-of-the-world or psycho-bizarre-and-unseen threat, from one issue to the other there are no recurring references to previous stories. This lack of references to events or agents that appears throughout the book, prevents a full immersion of the reader in the world of the global frequency.  I felt like I read various entertaining stories, but never plunged into the thrill and excitement I hoped I would experience.
 
Miranda Zero by Gary Leach (Artist for Issue #1)
Now let's go back to the characters. Since there are 1001 agents in this organization, I expected to see a various array of characters and abilities. Indeed, Ellis introduces new characters in almost every story. However two main characters appear in each issue: the founder and head of the Global Frequency, Miranda Zero, and the organizational genius who coordinates all operations from a secret headquarter, Aleph. Let's face it, Miranda Zero is incredibly sexy, not so much by the way she is illustrated, but more by her attitude. She is a woman probably in her late 30s/early 40s who runs an independent kick-ass agency, has 1001 direct subordinates, is hooked-up with whoever you can think of, and most importantly, is always on the ground with her agents to save the world. Though her age is not stated, she definitely qualifies as a cougar. Aleph, is a younger woman, probably in her twenties, depicted as a rebel, punkish rock woman, yet a technology geek and able to multi-task like no other human being. Although you see these two in every story, you don't get to learn a lot about them, their pasts, their feelings, their aspirations etc... You only get to see them do their tasks ie: beat intergalactic bastards and organize a commando operation in Italy from a basement in New York. The characters lack depth, which also prevents the reader from getting 100% into the Global Frequency world.

Volume 2 cover
The Art:
One cool thing about this series, is that every story is illustrated by a different artist, hence the art is different in every issue. At first, I had mixed feelings about this, but then as I understood that there was no continuity in the story either, I got OK with the various artists. Eventually I enjoyed discovering new styles and new representations of the same characters. Indeed, Miranda Zero and Aleph are depicted differently depending on each artist: for example in the first story Aleph looks really young hand has each of her finger nails painted in a different color, in the next story, she looks older and there are no such details of her nails. At the end of the day, there are so many very different types of art in this series, that you will certainly like some better over others. This diversity also adds some rhythm to the series, you always feel like a new adventure is starting, the change in art refreshes and helps to start a new story from scratch. Again.

On a Separate Note:
A TV pilot was made after the series. The series lends it self nicely for a TV show, and the directors could have added some depth to the characters, as some agents were supposed to appear in each episode along with Miranda Zero and Aleph. The pilot is pretty good overall, the acting is more than decent and the realization doesn't give the impression of a low-budget production. I quite enjoyed the pilot and, I have to acknowledge, I was not disappointed by Ms Zero....The TV pilot is available on Youtube, on the links below.

Pilot part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IRiWWTmNl1g
Pilot part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DkdKunOhR_s&context=C36b25a3ADOEgsToPDskKjPjC9VtnbJvXPshdELLaz 

  • Overall: 5/10
  • Future vision of technology: 4/10... indeed the special phones, which I assume at the time the series was published were supposed to be top-notch and ultra high tech, today look unrealistically old... my grandma has more a modern     phone than that of the Global Frequency!
  • If you cannot focus for more than 20 or so pages, and immediately forget what you just read: 7/10
  • Great potential but can do better: 7/10




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