By Ariel Baska — From the start of Adventureman Vol. 1, the crackerjack creative team of M. Fraction, R. Dodson, T. Dodson, and C. Cowles thrust you into a pulp fiction world of Art Deco derring-do, featuring Adventureman and his team of trusty heroes. Our well-heeled explorers burst on the scene one by one in glorious and glittering designs that would do Alphonse Mucha proud. With a gold and green cast to the coloring effects, Rachel Dodson captures the flickering quality of the oil lamps or the cinematic experience of such heroics. The camaraderie amongst the team only builds as explosives detonate, zeppelins crash, and the Baron and Baroness Bizarre attack Adventure Inc. to conquer time... itself! As the Obliteration Bible is written, and Adventureman prepares for the inevitable end, the book is closed on these flights of fancy and all the deliciously alliterative language those flights have to offer. Or so we think.

Rather than an exit, the closed book is an entrance into the world of Claire Connell and her son, Tommy. She wants most to disconnect from her reality, and from the feeling she can never live up to the precedents set by the rest of her family. She uses her disability to her advantage and spends her Friday night dinners with family tuning out - taking out her hearing aids and living in her own head. The overlapping dialogue of the dinner conversation she can’t hear is illustrated strikingly by Cowles. Claire’s character shines through in this scene more than all others in volume 1, as the full powers of the creative team are focused on her language - her words, her gestures, her body language, her appeals to her complacent audience. 

More importantly, though, Fraction is making a point about Claire’s agency. The moment a daughter takes advantage of her disability and lies outright to her family about why she removed her hearing aids, as they placidly accept the excuse that “the buzzing was too much” is actually a pretty damn significant moment. 

Fraction gives voice to her conscience which reminds her that she is, in fact, using her disability to behave like an asshole. The very concept of people with disabilities occasionally using them to get their own way or be manipulative seems heretical to most, unless the character is evil through and through. Rarely ever is a protagonist with assistive medical devices portrayed as anything less than a saint (unless they’re Richard III or some incarnation thereof). 

As a member of the DHOH community (Deaf/hard of hearing), I can tell you that I have been in this moment. It is recognizable and interpersonally important to the character development while also allowing a disabled character full rights of personhood. A family tacitly allows the character to use her disability as an excuse, a lie. And while they would confront her about anything else, they will not confront her about this. And maybe, just maybe, those quiet smiles in response are the reason she feels distant.

By showing her in this light, Fraction adds Adventureman to the list of disability inclusive titles that give full agency to disabled characters, allowing them to be people, not just avatars for altruistic sentimentality. 

As the issues continue, Claire’s life becomes increasingly complex and impossible to disconnect from in any meaningful way. Her adventures in the bookshop where she works are just the beginning to a quest to find the skyscraper of glass and chrome, and stop the Baron Bizarre, who is hatching his evil plots… somewhere. 

She battles robots using her hearing aids as a weapon, an action that made me recoil, knowing how expensive those mofos are. But it’s a clever move to show that she’s a fully formed superhero, operating in the world of epic battles with all aspects of who she is at her disposal. I feared a reversal coming on as she regains full hearing in one ear, part of an odd metamorphosis that comes along with a change in her proportions. 

The difficult adjustment to her growth in sensory input, as well as size is portrayed beautifully by the whole team. With slight, subtle changes to the lettering and her figure, she’s a body that’s almost lost in the space she occupies. Like a new brand of Alice in Wonderland, she comically clings to a scooter that no longer fits her. She doesn’t quite know how to move or react as she walks down the street, and much about this experience could be read as a connection to dysmorphia and dysphoria. The fact that she loses her memories of finding Adventure Inc. or even of her mission as it stands, only further highlights how out of joint she feels, serving both a narrative purpose and connecting to her shifting sense of self.

The fragments of memory are hard to fathom in Issue 4, but Terry and Rachel Dodson do terrific work introducing the chi-chi yet undeniably sci-fi aesthetic into Claire’s realistic world. As ideas and memories fragment, the story as written becomes difficult to follow at times. I found myself making more sense of it on a subliminal level by following the cues from the incredible artwork and lettering, where perspective, proportion, and shading can mean so much. Intimations are made as to where this book is going, and while I’d rather not reveal my pet theories/pseudo-spoilers, I can share that no matter whether I’m right or not, this book has earned the love it’s getting.

I want Fraction to keep telling Claire’s story as long as he can, both because he’s capturing part of the disabled experience I’ve never seen anywhere else, and because she’s a terrific character. A single mother on a singular quest for her own identity. And while we’re at it, I want another beautiful hardcover volume, to showcase the radiant artwork and inclusive narrative of a woman carried away by a story. 

Overall: A thrillingly pulpy epic with dazzling artwork and strong, inclusive storytelling. 9.4/10

Adventureman Vol. 1, The End And Everything After

Adventureman Vol. 1, The End And Everything After HC
Writer: Matt Fraction
Artist: Terry Dodson
Colorist: Rachel Dodson
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Publisher: Image
Price: $24.99
WHERE HIS STORY ENDED... HER STORY BEGINS! Everyone knows the story of how ADVENTUREMAN, the greatest pulp hero of all time, ended in a heartbreaking CLIFFHANGER with our hero facing his very execution...now, learn the startling truth about how, 80 years after his seeming demise, single mother Claire and her Adventurefan son Tommy light the spark of RESURRECTION! Can these inheritors of the Adventureman legacy rise up to face down the evil that bested the original? Collects ADVENTUREMAN #1-4.
Release Date: December 9, 2020
Buy It Digitally: Adventureman Vol. 1, The End And Everything After HC

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Ariel Baska has had many past lives, but right now she has a podcast, Ride the Omnibus, parked at the intersection of pop culture and social justice.