Review by Ian Keogh
Ramon Townsend is a NASA trained astronaut now working on a space program that’s a vanity project for the son of the man running Janus, a controversial communications company. Moon Man opens with four astronauts having returned to Earth after a failed attempt to land on the Moon, interrupted by a period of seven minutes when they disappeared from all tracking. They’re keeping a secret about a missing seven minutes, but corporate needs require a united front in public. Complicating matters for Ramon is that his younger brother Micah is a militant anti-Janus activist.
People successful in other fields turning to comics and producing something of value lacks a great track record, so hip hop star Kid Cudi joining the pack hardly raises anticipation despite a career of intelligent lyrics (and briefly appearing as an astronaut in the video for ‘Soundtrack 2 My Life’). However, it’s not long into Ignition before the realisation drops that he’s well ahead of the pack, although he collaborates, so it’s unknown how much of the heavy lifting is handled by co-writers Kyle Higgins and Joe Clark. Cudi’s credit under his real name of Scott Mescudi slightly distances him from his other career, and presuming at the very least the concept and direction originated with him means there’s value here.
Ignition is a superhero story, but very focussed on Ramon as a person. The pressures he’s under are well conveyed, and the way he deals with them are convincingly the reactions of an ordinary person who’d prefer not to be in his situation. The personalities of others are established from the start and the writing team introduce mystery via the unspoken events of those missing seven minutes, clever for being a sly variation on the Fantastic Four’s origin. It’s all the more impressive for the brave move of introducing disorientation for readers at the beginning.
Contributing to that is artist Marco Locati, who’s certainly distinctive, which is also good even if it doesn’t always pay off, as what’s the point of introducing another assembly line superhero? Locati’s at his best in combination with colourist Igor Monti delivering the unimaginable, while not having white borders separating panels supplies a continuing darkness. The weakest scenes are the few of superhero action. These are deliberately indistinct conveying Ramon’s desire for anonymity and the rush of powerful people operating at speed, but it’s also difficult to work out what’s happening.
A sympathetic lead character, a cast whose motivations are clear, an original artistic approach, something to say about corporate domination and the way Ignition builds are all very promising. There’s great potential to Moon Man.
