Great Pacific #4 Review


The almost-believable SF adventure of Great Pacific continues in issue 4, which includes a very strange story-telling choice. Here’s the official description from Image:

Settling the Great Pacific Garbage Patch has led Chas Worthington down an insanely dangerous path. But when the lovely and mysterious French aviator, Zoe crashes onto his island nation, things only get worse. Meanwhile, the corporation and the government Chas fled conspire to drag his fugitive hide back to Texas!

Up until now, Joe Harris has done a pretty good job of balancing Great Pacific’s story with its message, and kept its main character hovering in an interesting position between idealism and pragmatism. Unfortunately, a lot of that balance is lost in this issue as Chas essentially mind melds with Yalafath the giant mutant octopus, convincing it to release Zoe. It’s a bizarre Disney moment in story that, up to this point, has tried to stay grounded in reality (with a few futuristic touches). Even stranger is that Chas intentionally tries to save Zoe by psyching the creature out, and isn’t surprised when it works. He’s not Crocodile Dundee, not (for any sensible reason that I can imagine) an octopus whisperer, so the whole thing comes out of left field.

As far as the rest of the issue goes, Chas’s stumbling from one incident to another is getting a little old, but, for the time being, Harris continues to conjure interesting elements in the Patch’s seemingly homogenous landscape, in this case a lost Russian satellite filled with nuclear warheads. Meanwhile, back at the ranch (in real Texas) and at the settlement (in garbage Texas) events start to progress in earnest, and it’s nice to see some action on those fronts.

Martín Morazzo’s work remains consistent: the lack of variation in the layouts, and, to a lesser extent, the stiffness of the characters, is very frustrating, but his ingenuity at creating landscapes out of garbage is pretty amazing. He sculpts cliffs, buttes, fjords, islets, all out of junk. One panorama in particular is beautiful, with the terrain losing its refuse texture, seeming to become natural as it fades into the distance, the moon rising above. It’s an enchanting scene that almost makes the garbage patch seem desirable real estate.

The other great image of the issue, artwise, comes when Chas’s friend Alex pries up a section of flooring in the base to discover the giant octopus staring up at him. Seeing their eyes connect through the translucent, multicolored filter of the garbage is excellent, and Morazzo nicely conveys just how strange that situation would be.

Great Pacific persists at drifting in the awkward area where it’s interesting enough to continue reading, but still failing to achieve it’s potential. It’s positive elements are such that I can understand people who like more than I do.

3.5/5

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