This series is another one of Image Comics’ great titles, along with some of my other favourites such as Saga (READ IT), Rat Queens and East of West. This one is quite a bit further along than the others, as this is the fourth large hard cover trade, released in mid-2014. This is one of the few graphic novel series that my husband is willing to read – he just isn’t a fiction reader and isn’t generally enchanted by the medium, but really likes this one.
This main conceit is that Earth’s population has been decimated by bird flu, so chicken is banned and various agencies such as the FDA and NASA have taken over enforcement duties. The series centres around the Chu family, who each have some sort of food-related psychic power. The powers vary, and they aren’t exclusive to the Chu family members, but some of them are more dangerous than others. There entire series is based on Tony Chu’s enforcement career and pursuit of a supervillian who eats other psychics to absorb their power, much like Zachary Quinto’s character from Heroes.
In the fourth volume, Tony is suffering from a series of losses and injuries, and is struggling to find a way forward while conspiracies swirl around him. This one has actually been my least favourite so far – it has less of the rather remarkable humour found in the first three collected volumes, and it felt like it had less narrative drive forward. This fourth volume felt mostly like a set up for future story lines, which makes sense considering how long the series has been running, but still too many one-off stories for me. In any event, the art is still wonderful and some of the flashback scenes were great. I absolutely look forward to reading the next one, even if this one wasn’t as great as the previous issues. Still, a great series that I definitely recommend.
