Nowhere Man struck my interest on two levels, the striking cover, and Marc Guggenheim’s name. Make note of this, Marc Guggenheim is a writer that’s more miss than hit with me. Then I saw that striking cover that made me decide to take a look through the comic and Jeevan J. Kang’s artwork inside piqued my interest enough to make me want to know more. Guggenheim’s story is influenced heavily by classic science fiction in the vein of Minority Report to a degree. The concept of Nowhere Man is this, five hundred years in the future everyone on Earth is infected with a virus giving you a mark called The Color that taps you into a central computer called the Omnimind. The Omnimind monitors your thoughts and has eliminated crime across the Earth. This is the world that Mason our main character lives in. He is the Nowhere Man of our story, he has been altered to be immune to the virus giving him freedom from the Omnimind.
When your first page is Mason and a probable assailant falling from a high rise you know whatever is going to happen, it’s not going to be pretty. Though when we get into the further story of Nowhere Man, Mason is someone you can tell he has a larger goal in mind, as you learn in flashbacks about his childhood.. Jeevan J. Kang is a good fit for Guggenheim’s story, from a softer style in Mason’s flashbacks, to a harsher, darker style in stark contrast to the seemingly bright future around Mason. As an example of the softer style, Mason learns about the virus that he’s immune to through a cartoon his Dad shows him, the animated energetic characters showing the diversity of Kang’s art style. In getting further into the issue the entire comic drives a mixed reaction from me.
Let me explain the mixed reaction, Guggenheim is a student of TV and Movie style writing, and this book in parts almost screams TV pilot at times. The way the story was coming together and the transitions felt like at times commercial break and into the next scene. Not entirely bad yet I could tell what was happening here. Does that mean I hated it? I like the intention of the story, and at the half way point there are some clever twists here and there. There are some aspects of the issue I didn’t entirely like say in how some of the other characters in Nowhere Man came across. There are also many things within that I didn’t entirely see coming as well, leading up to a final page that leaves me with mixed emotions on the issue.
Nowhere Man despite my mixed reactions is also one of the better efforts I’ve seen of Marc Guggenheim in awhile. Considering I couldn’t get into his his last series Halcyon it’s equivalent to faint praise from me. I do like Jeevan J. Kang’s art style though which despite some issues with the story here and there I was engaged at times when I wouldn’t be normally. The best way to describe this story in my own thoughts is I didn’t entirely hate it nor did I entirely love it. If you’re still interested in Nowhere Man and want to know more, give it a look your opinion may be dramatically different than mine. Nowhere Man inspires my favorite phrase of your mileage may vary.
