Review: The Secret History of D.B. Cooper #1

I feel like I’ve been waiting a year for this title, butit’s finally here and was definitely worth the wait. If like me, you knownothing about D.B. Cooper then fear not this book requires you to have no priorknowledge of the person still on the FBI’s most wanted list. Why he’s still onthe “most wanted” list is beyond me, you’d think there was a “if we happen uponthem” list due to how many years have passed.

The story opens with Cooper in a very trippy “lost toys”area and being greeted by a one eared Teddy Bear. He walks and talks to thebear who is obviously his helper in this strange land. They establish thateverything there is basically lost or broken and forgotten like the bear. Thatdoesn’t stop Cooper from finding a sword, a lighter and cigarette’s, but Cooperis a resourceful CIA agent after all. He comes across a landmark that isfamiliar to him and heads up a path to find a sleeping monster. As he pops thesword to kill the monster it awakens and attacks him.

The monster pukes on him and we’re transported to Russiainside the Kremlin. An old woman named Olga is delivering food to a Mr.Nikitin. As the two converse about her family and son, Cooper continues tofight this monster which is essentially the essence of Nikitin in this strange land. Cooper isgetting his ass handed to him, but his red teddy bear helps out by throwing himhis sword that’s been dropped throughout the course of battle. Cooper swingsdown upon the monsters head splitting it's head in two. As Olga stands in Nikitin’soffice his head suddenly splits in two as well traumatizing the poor woman.From there the story rewinds a bit and we see Cooper in the real world about togo under to complete the mission we’ve just read about.

I really enjoyed the issue. I’m not always a fan of theflashback story telling device, but it works for this issue. It’s a solidpresentation that gives the reader all of the action in the beginning and allof Coopers “Go fuck yourself” personality at the end. The concept behind thebook is very strong, but I wonder how long it can last for. The events of thebook indicate that this is one week before the plane hi-jacking that put Cooperon the FBI’s most wanted list, so it’s not reasonable to assume that we’llcontinue the course the book is currently on.

I’m not familiar with Brian Churilla’s work so I can’t giveyou a great quote of how “this is what he’s meant to do” or anything like that.I can say that he’s a solid storyteller both with the written word and thevisual page. With a concept like this its probably a very good thing that he’shis own artist as I’m sure a lot of the designs he’s going for would bedifficult to explain to someone else to draw. Is it the book he was made to do,I don’t know but I love the concept and the execution on this issue it was just a great book.

I’m assuming that this book has been slated for a while inorder to get ahead of the monthly release schedule since one man is doing all the work. Oni ships books on timethat’s their goal, so I’ll imagine that this too will ship on time with breaksonly for the trade paper backs. There are a lot of great books out this week somake sure that you don’t miss this one.

Score: 4/5

Writer/Artist: Brian Churilla

Publisher: Oni Press

Price: $3.99

Release Date: 3/14/2012

Comments

[Eric]

I'm not quite finished but this book is really good so far and I recommend it.