The Infinite Horizon

If nothing else, writer Gerry Duggan and artist Phil Noto have to be commended for having the ingenuity to think that “The Odyssey” could be reinvented as a near-future take on the War on Terror and one soldier’s efforts to get home.  This solder has no name, save “Captain” and “father,” but we’re introduced to him as he decks lazy private military contractors, gets thrown in the brig for it and then goes on to cover the extraction of civilian assets in Syria before he and his men have to find their own way back home.  Things aren’t much better for his wife Penelope and their son, as society and the environment are slowly breaking down to resemble what we saw in “The Massive” and she has to fend for her family against those who covet her access to clean water.

Most of the analogues to Homer’s epic are generally pretty clever, such as the Russian “cyclops” decked out in body armor with special night vision, and the “sirens” being a cult luring people to work on their ark.  What holds things back is that the seriousness of the whole endeavor keeps getting hammered home on a regular basis in the dialogue.  Also, things like having the Captain re-break his leg overshoot “dramatically striking” and land somewhere near “ridiculous.”  Noto generally does a good job investing drama in the art, in scenes such as the plane crash and the Captain’s drug-fueled nightmare about the people he left trapped on a ship, though there’s just as much with linework thin and simple enough to imply that he was rushed for time.  On balance, this isn’t bad though I think the concept and the parts I did like left me wanting to like it more than I actually do.