27 #2 – Advance Review

By: Charles Soule (writer), Renzo Podesta (art), Shawn DePasquale (letters) & Kristen Simon (editor)

The Story: Having regained (briefly) the use of his hand via a demonic ceremony performed by a nude mad scientist, a guitarist tries to figure out what has happened to him.

What’s Good: The weirdness just keeps rolling for this title.  I tend to get almost everything new that Image puts out, but I honestly had a few reservations about this title when pre-ordering it because it seemed like it might be about music and bands.  There are people who are into bands and live music, but that isn’t me.  So, I was gleefully surprised with the first issue of 27.  There was no angst, no heroin addicted girlfriend, no struggles to pay the rent and book the next gig (BORING), it just ripped into a scene were a mad scientist is sacrificing cats to give a guitarist his hands back.  I LOVE that kind of weirdness because it leaves you no idea what will happen next.  For a new(er) comic writer, Charles Soule is having no trouble figuring out how to pace a comic book.  He’s a really talented writer.

I don’t want to spoil too much (this being an advance review), but the story moves forward on several fronts.  For one thing, Garland gets more information about what supernatural thing may have happened to him and how the magic works.  The concept plays completely on numerology and is very neat.  It also illustrates some of my words to live by: Don’t EVER just start randomly pushing buttons!!!  We also see Garland try to get some professional help (from an unusual source) and reconnect with his old manager.  Surprise!  She’s an attractive woman.

Oh yeah…There is another complete “WTF?” moment in the middle of this issue that involves a dead pigeon and a parking deck.