Review by Ian Keogh
Melissa Peake is 23, extremely rich via marriage to a work obsessed husband, but unfulfilled, and so an ideal target for Orlando, who represents unknown interests, but has a deep knowledge of matters most humans know little of. He seduces Melissa easily, but while she expects a broadening of her horizons, where she rapidly finds herself is a massive shock to the system.
Peter Milligan has an admirable track record of creativity few in comics can match. His mind twists in ways unknown, weirdness is guaranteed and his storytelling is temptation led. We’re promised sex, and who doesn’t want that? Milligan gives us what we want, but in a way immediately making us feel grubby in the circumstances. What’s disclosed to readers in an oblique way, but not Melissa, is that the organisation Orlando represents, the Discipline, are alien, and have an agenda. In exploring it Milligan indulges his sordid side to establish degradation, and his stomach may be stronger than yours.
Leandro Fernández draws everything in an impossibly beautiful style to begin with, but that in its way is as deceitful as Milligan in a story where the allure of sex is the honey trap. There’s a masterful use of light and shade, and Cris Peter’s colours work sympathetically alongside that creating a light that’s never comforting, with Melissa’s red hair the only real brightness.
Unfortunately, though, while the set-up captivates, once the cards are on the table The Discipline disappoints to a degree. Milligan ensures Melissa’s fate remains a concern, but much of what’s wrapped around that isn’t as cleverly conceived as her struggles. It’s never adequately explained why she’s central, as the reason given doesn’t hold up. If her husband’s power and influence is so important, why not seduce him? And why should that be of interest to an organisation able to transcend time?
Had the series been continued perhaps viable answers would have been on the agenda, but as it stands it’s unsatisfying, decent until halfway, then marking time for a conclusion that never adequately manifests.
