Letter 44 vols. 1 & 2
Charles Soule has made a name for himself for being able to put out three-to-four superhero comics a month for Marvel and DC over the past few years. I’ve only read his work on ”Swamp Thing” and “She-Hulk,” which have been enjoyable though not entirely compelling reasons for the writer’s prolificacy. Now we have his first creator-owned series and it certainly has a killer concept behind it. Unfortunately, after two volumes I’m still not sure if I’m enjoying it because it’s actually good or the kind of slow-motion trainwreck that appeals to me.
On the day of his inauguration, President Ruben Blades finds a letter addressed to him from his predecessor President Francis Carroll. While Blades was preparing to deal with the many crises facing the U.S. at home and abroad, the information revealed in this letter presents a new one that dwarfs them all. An alien presence was discovered in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter a few years back and there is no indication as to whether or not it is friendly or hostile. Not only did President Carroll commission the building of a spacecraft, and staff it with a group of military personnel and scientists, to investigate the threat up close, he also took a number of steps to ensure that the U.S. would be ready to take action if these aliens turned out to be hostile. Now that he knows all this, President Blades has his own ideas about how the potential threat should be addressed.
The world of “Letter 44” is essentially ours with the serial numbers filed off. Blades is “Not Obama” and Carroll is “Not Dubya,” with plenty of references to recent political events — reform of health care, the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq — to emphasize that fact. This decision on Soule’s part adds to the immediacy of the story while also allowing for plenty of suspension of disbelief when it comes to the sci-fi parts of the series as well as its more outlandish plot twists.
And things do get outlandish in this series. It’s clear that Soule has put more thought into the sci-fi parts of this series, but when it comes to its human and political drama the book winds up becoming a virtual soap opera. We’ve got one nameless fixer going around and doing Carroll’s dirty work, Blades having to contend with untrustworthy members of his own administration, the First Lady’s attempt to head off the potential impeachment of her husband, and the tangled relationships that have formed between everyone on the Clarke.
Some of this is quite fun: The political fisticuffs between Carroll and Blades is satisfying in the way that while both are good at confounding the other’s plans, neither has been able to get the other to submit after two volumes. There’s also stuff like Isobel, the First Lady, and her interactions with the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee — who also happened to be a rival for her affections at the same time as Blades — which can only be described as a “guilty pleasure” if you’re being extremely charitable about things.
Then you get to the things which actively annoy me. Like the fact that one of the scientists aboard the Clarke becomes pregnant en route to the alien site. That something like this should happen on a mission of global importance does not speak well of the professionalism of anyone in the crew. I doubt anyone on Earth would feel much safer if they knew their fate was being entrusted to people irresponsible enough to bring a child into such an extremely hazardous and unsafe environment. Making matters worse is that after the child is born, she basically winds up being a “drama button” Soule can hit whenever he feels like things aren’t suspenseful enough for everyone out in space.
But this isn’t even the worst plot development in this series. No, that distinction has to go to the circumstances which allow an atomic device to be detonated in vol. 2. I can’t go into specifics due to spoilers, yet this particular development is awful not just because it comes off as Soule forcing a plot point into his narrative, but because it makes our armed forces look incredibly, unbelievably dumb in the process. Yeah, they’re only human, except that a simple display of basic competency would’ve prevented this tragedy from unfolding.
At least Soule keeps the narrative going at a brisk pace throughout the series. This means that he can keep throwing new stuff at you to distract from the stuff that doesn’t work. (Save for the baby, she keeps being annoying throughout.) It adds to the whole “soap opera” feel of the narrative, but it also allows things to be wrapped up much faster than you’d expect. I was expecting the political backstabbing of the first volume to go on for much longer than it did. However, most of it is wrapped up at its end with the dynamic of power between Blades and Carroll substantially changed. The same practice is in effect with the second volume as well with things ending up in a much different place than they began. In space as well as on Earth.
It’s the space stuff — that doesn’t involve who’s having sex with who or the baby that results from such activities — which is probably the least ridiculous part of the series. Soule’s calculating nature serves him well here as he’s put more thought here into how we’d respond when faced with a potential alien threat. That’s seen in the multi-page speech from Dr. Portek in the second issue as well as the actual interactions the crew has with the aliens. Even if there are more than a few boneheaded “shoot first and ask questions later” moments to be had as the title progresses.
The art is also at its strongest when we’re seeing the action out in space as artist Alberto Albuquerque seems to be more at home with illustrating human-and-alien-based tech. Our human efforts come off as appropriately low-fi and cobbled together while the aliens’ is as streamlined and fancy as you’d expect. In fact, the book’s defining visual at the moment is a double-page spread in vol. 2 involving the differences in scale between the Clarke and the alien craft which adds to the book’s scale as it drives home just how far out of its depth humanity is.
Regrettably, Albuquerque isn’t quite as skilled when it comes to depicting actual humans. Your mileage may vary, but I found his cast of squared-off faces with funny noses to be more distracting than engaging. I got used to it after a while, but there would always be some kind of wildly exaggerated “acting” from the characters which would pull me out of the story again at some point. Moments like these only add to the soap opera feel of the title, and not in a good way.
It’s that whole “soap opera” business that I can see being a dealbreaker for a lot of readers. Either you wind up being repulsed by some of the ridiculousness that I’ve discussed here, or you accept it and buy into things as best you can. In my case, I’m able to buy into it because of the fast-paced narrative and how Soule has imbued it with a genuine sense of progress. Things do change significantly over the course of these two volumes and the blurb regarding the third promises that things will get even crazier from here. I can appreciate that, even if there’s plenty in this series so far that just doesn’t work.