Loop-de-Loop
Written by Elsa Charretier, Pierrick Colinet Art by Daniele Di Nicuolo
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: September 27, 2017
Review by: Andrew McAvoy
Despite this being something of a bumper week in the comics world, no book excited me as much as The Infinite Loop: Nothing But the Truth. Issue 1 kicks of the second volume of the story by Pierrick Colinet and Elsa Charretier. The first volume was jam packed with ideas about time, and the re-percussive effects of time travel, which saw the main protagonist Teddy tasked with finding and removing anomalies in the time stream with the aid of her partner Ulysses. When she stumbled across human anomalies and fell in love with one of them (Ano) that's when things started to get really complex. The first volume is a joy to read, and I would heartily recommend it. That said you don't need to have read it - you can jump straight into this first issue of the second volume.
The issue also sees Daniele Di Nicuolo take over from Elsa Charretier on art duties, while Charretier and Colinet assume writing duties on the title. I must confess to being sad at seeing Charretier pass over the art duties. I fell in love with her work reviewing The Unstoppable Wasp for Weird Science, and its been a pleasure to see her since work on IDW's Star Wars anthology series Star Wars Adventures. That said, we still get an awesome Charretier cover and, even better, Di Nicuolo delivers the goods here, and it compliments a fresh story, so its a win-win.
The story commences with Teddy, now working as part of an underground team helping to hide anomalies. Her true love, Ano, is now a member of US Congress. Human anomalies are not suppressed anymore (i.e. killed), thanks to Teddy and Ano’s work in the last title, but are now parked in horrendous refugee camps. Ano is fighting the system in her own way from the inside, Teddy from the outside as an activist. Their relationship is kept secret to facilitate Ano's new democratic role.
One of the frightening plot elements involves a new technological development that has been introduced into society where complete virtual reality experience is conveyed to people via headsets. It allows people to avoid reality by living in treasured memories or fictionalized environments rather than live in their impoverished reality. To use a film analogy, in their minds they are looking at the white picket fences of the suburbs in American Beauty when in reality they are physically located in the overrun decimated suburbs of Detroit shown in the film It Follows.
Is this an allegory for societies growing need for prescription medicines or anti-depressants to help take the edge of reality? Is it a way of highlighting how grown men like me escape into an alternative universe of comic books at night rather than watching the evening news? The fact is it could be both or none of those things - it could even extend to the diet of fantasy that politicians promise us at election time, the fantasies that people delude themselves into believing. In any event the fact is that in reality these people in Nothing but the Truth are in dire straits, and are placated by an electronic opium for the masses that keeps them docile. This is writing that makes you really think; and I can see me rereading this many times and getting more and more out of it.
The change of art style is also worth expanding on quickly. Charretier has a very classic 50s comic book look with a twist (which I can't get enough of). Di Nicuolo tends to lean towards a more energetic manga style of art. His material is just as fantastic in its own way and the change allows us to break with what has went before and helps us consider the characters anew.
Bits and Pieces:
If you like a comic that tackles the distinctions between truth and perception or comics that leave you thinking for hours afterwards you'll love this book. I know I did.
9/10
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