FrontiersMan # 1
Part One: Human Clutter
Make sure what you do matters. If you ask me that sums up the message I got from reading the first issue of FrontiersMan from Image Comics. We often get lost in looking at the forest for the trees and vice versa in this day and age. But when you get right down to it this argument is really about the same thing and nothing at all.
Words by: Patrick Kindlon
Art by: Marco Ferrari
Letters by: Jim Campbell
FrontiersMan is a perfect example of what a hero would behave like if faced with our “social media” society. Looking at his existence, deep in the woods far from the likes of man, you would say he has given up. To the casual observer this individual would have no place being listed in the annals of time as a heroes. But Patrick Kindlon’s story diverges from the typical hero who fell from grace. Rather than focusing on the changes he could make, we witness a man who focused on the changes that mattered.
FrontiersMan doesn’t concern itself with if the tree that fell in the forest that no one is there to hear makes a sound. Instead it asks did the tree fall or was it pushed.
Marco Ferrari does a fantastic job providing the artwork for this comic. From the opening we are treated to a breathtaking view of an mountainous forest of trees. Bringing the scene down to ground level, Ferrari captures the effect of the sun peaking through and hitting the forest floor. Each panel is a single perfect sketch that is bound together into one masterful series of scenes.
FrontiersMan trudges through the wilds of social commentary. The activist approaching FrontiersMan allows the hero to explain all that can go wrong when you set out to make a difference. We see how easily it is to become overwhelmed from the weight of the responsibility. And also how you make yourself an enemy to everyone. A later conversation with Professor Unicell, another former member of the Bold Travelers, makes that message clear. He mentions how the villian Barhos once said to him that people behave how they want to. They are even willing to become a hysterical mob. All it takes is a nudge.
Score: 8.7