Superhero comics can be a vehicle for wish fulfillment, for an examination of messiah complexes in our society, or simply for a rousing entertainment (though there’s nothing simple in trying to entertain people). I think it partly depends whether the author is more interested in the mechanics of plot or in the consequences of extraordinary events. British artist Michael Georgiou seems to be in the latter camp—though his plotting is well thought out.
His new series, Elemental Micah, focuses on the eponymous Micah, a teen-aged, hardly employed gay guy whose first night of sex with older and hunky co-worker Simon leads to a catastrophic morning, as he’s suddenly able to manipulate air to blow Simon’s hair…and then there’s the tornado. The Thunder. The wall blown out by Micah’s breath. Their car being carried away by the tornado. Or is it the other way round? And Simon spending a month in a tree. But we’re getting ahead of ourselves.
In the first issue, Georgiou sets up a gripping story with realistic characters, who then have to deal with the aftermath of events surrounding the appearance of elemental powers in the completely unprepared young man. Besides Micah and Simon, there’s also Dana, Micah’s best friend, and of course, Alfonzo, Micah’s dog, who doesn’t seem to go the way of Krypto, but who knows what will happen later, considering how mad some of Georgiou’s ideas are.
While the first issue tells the story of The Night Micah Gets Some, the second issue is about the morning after. As Dana tries to deal with (ex-)boyfriend troubles, Micah and Simon discover the joys of driving a flying car. Not flying as in “The Future according to the 50s”, but flying as in “Let’s see whether Micah can control a tornado sweeping away the car”.
The third, and last published to date, issue jumps a month ahead, as Simon, who’d been taken away by the tornado at the end of the second issue, miraculously reappears four weeks later, limbs—and spirit—broken. Where has he been? Does he also have a superpower? The answers aren’t nice at all.
In the midst of all that madness, Michael Georgiou gives us very engaging characters, which grounds the story. While it seems this isn’t a world where superpowers are common, it isn’t always easy for a reader to judge how weird events like that are supposed to be in a story. The way the reactions of the characters are depicted gives us a clue: absolutely, undoubtedly bonkers. The characters seem to hesitate between terror and elation, between crawling under their bed while hugging their teddy bears and shouting from the rooftops “I can make a tornado appears!”. The contrast between the fantasy elements and the believable behaving of the people involved, as well as their everyday problems (Micah is now jobless, for example), creates a world which feels emotionally right, which after all is what most good fiction aspires to. Moreover, the general tone of the series is hard to pin down, a very good thing in my opinion. It’s not a mainstream superhero series, and it’s not the equivalent of a big budget superpowers film: while there’s no shortage of weird and wonderful ideas here, the characters don’t feel like they’re in service to the plot. What happens to them is not always pleasant (far from it, in fact), but it doesn’t feel like one of these bleak, post-Watchmen tales we get from time to time (and some are quite good): simply put, it feels human.
While the art in the first issue is not as accomplished as the writing, it definitely improves with each issue, as you can see from the examples below. The storytelling, on the other hand, is rather sophisticated, with varied and effective layouts, as well as some non-linear narration which shows that the author has a more than good grasp of comics grammar.
 Simon makes the first move (issue #1) |
 Dorothy never had a flying car (issue #2) |
 Simon visits an old flame (issue #3) |
I read those three issues of Elemental Micah without knowing what to expect, and I was not disappointed, because Michael Georgiou gives us exactly that: the unexpected. Add to that his moving characters, and you get a series I’d very much like to follow to its conclusion.
You can see more excerpts of the series at its website, and you can buy these comics at IndyPlanet.
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