Review by Ian Keogh

The previous two volumes of Geiger have been entirely produced by Geoff Johns and Gary Frank, but in Volume Three for the first time other creators contribute.

Paul Pelletier draws more pages than anyone else (sample art), in a story that continues directly from Volume Two and the slim hope that someone might be able to cure Geiger. Pelletier brings years of experience to action series, and while Frank may have set the tone, these pages are very nicely drawn. They’re clear, the characters are well defined, and his version of Geiger in action is suitably fearsome, with Brad Anderson’s colours highlighting the impossibility of a glowing green man. Frank only draws a few pages of the three opening chapters.

These are three separate stories with connecting threads. In the first Geiger and Nate rescue children from attacking nightcrawlers, returning them home for the less satisfactory second exploring their community. It hinges on a series theme of books being important, but the logic employed in denying this doesn’t greatly hold up. Then again, neither does the logic of those wanting to remove books from present day American schools and libraries citing various spurious reasons. Maybe that’s Johns’ point.

By the end of this section Johns recaps on the entire array of those still hunting for Geiger, and some will presumably track him in Volume Four.

The remainder of Volume Three is occupied with background. It’s known that in Geiger’s world at some earlier point the nuclear missiles flew, devastating much of the USA and fragmenting control into small regional groups, with what’s left of the official government operating from their Colorado bunker. In one sense, beyond the broad details, what happened previously is irrelevant as Geiger concerns the situation as it is, and Johns realises this. There are flashbacks to the ailing Geiger before the bombs dropped, but much of what’s presented in ‘Ground Zero’ occurs six months after disaster. Geiger has already transformed and the focal point is Russian scientist Molotov, a defector we’ve seen before.

Originally released as prelude to Geiger’s ongoing series, ‘Ground Zero’ works ideally as such, with Frank’s alluring art and Johns’ clever story. The revelations are largely about who Molotov is, and what his motivations are, along with veiled references to his past. At the same time it fills in gaps, connecting brief flashbacks already seen and expands on how Molotov in effect saved Geiger twenty years before the current continuity. Tight and self-contained it works better than the earlier chapters, which have their moments, but little new to say about Geiger.