Forgetless Issues 1 – 2 | Under The Radar

Forgetless Issues 1 – 2

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Written by Nick Spencer; Issue 1 art & colors by Scott Forbes and Marley Zarcone; Issue 2 art by Jorge Coelho & colors by Eric Skillman and Marley Zarcone

Feb 10, 2010 By Jeremy Nisen

The several plots in Forgetless swirl around an event: some sort of epic club in New York that's about to open its doors for the last time. The book is rife with modern pop culture-isms—such as texting, tweeting, and viral video provocateurs—and age-old truisms—such as disaffected youth in search of counterfeit identification for the purposes of obtaining alcohol and such. Those elements, especially the pop culture stuff, can pretty easily muddle a story, let alone when you mix in the kickoff plot—that of a down and out model-turned-assassin coming to the event to commit her first kill.

But writer Nick Spencer pulls it off seamlessly, even with multiple artists. A few of the plot elements are crude, such as the guys "I fuck anything" themes (a building, an espresso machine) for the aforementioned Internet video efforts. I think a smart writer like Spencer could have done a little better. But the characters shine through with originality, even when the situations are a touch cliché.

The art is good, but the contributions from Marley Zarcone really shine—like a less-realized Paul Pope, maybe, with fewer lines but all the expressiveness. It's a particularly difficult challenge for Zarcone, since he's the one penciling the arc about the teenagers-something many artists can't nail, neither size nor fashion nor body language. Zarcone's definitely someone to keep an eye on.

All in all, Forgetless is a nice surprise; eagerly awaiting the five-parter to wrap up and hoping the quality and cleverness are maintained to the end. (www.imagecomics.com)