The Seasons vol. 1

While writer Rick Remender has done some extended creator-owned series in his career, “Deadly Class” & “Black Science,” his recent output has trended towards shorter-form series.  Seventeen issues of “Seven to Eternity.”  Fifteen of (ugh) “The Scumbag.”  Eleven each of “Death or Glory” and “A Righteous Thirst for Vengeance.”  Ten issues of “Napalm Lullaby.”  While it remains to be seen how long “The Sacrificers,” the just-launched “Escape,” or “The Seasons” will run, that last one has the feel it’s not meant to run indefinitely.  As well as potentially being one of the better ones in the writer’s library.

I say that this series doesn’t feel like it’s meant to run indefinitely because the four issues collected in vol. 1 all serve to set up an extended story dealing with a particular threat.  “The Seasons” are the four daughters of the titular family:  manic artiste Winter, adventurer Autumn, supermodel Summer, and young schoolgirl Spring who is quickly established as the protagonist of the series.  As well as being the most hard-working, responsible, and unlucky of the three as we’re introduced to her trying to secure a letter from Autumn while chasing it throughout the town and causing all sorts of chaos in her wake.  It isn’t until Summer gets the letter that she finds out a dire threat, in the form of an evil circus, has already arrived in her town.

Spring chasing that letter takes up the majority of the first issue and it’s one of the most dazzling things I’ve seen in a Remender-written comic.  While the writer has shown that he can write an amazing action sequence, but this isn’t really that.  It’s just one long sequence of kinetic movement charting one girl’s escapades through space and time with all sorts of things going wrong for her in the process.  This is all expertly rendered by artist Paul Azaceta who makes this not only easy to follow over the course of more than a dozen pages, but does it while also maintaining its momentum throughout.

Azaceta does this while also establishing the series’ visual identity of a fantastical yet idyllic European town from the 60’s complete with pastry shops, mail couriers on scooters, fancily-dressed ladies walking through the down, and the aforementioned evil circus – which is a brightly-colored delight to see in action.  There are even some futuristic touches, such as the chimneysweep’s rocket pack to let you know this series isn’t meant to take place in our grounded reality.  Remender also uses this sequence to establish the whimsical tone of the series and establish Summer’s character as a hard-luck optimist who’s always struggling to succeed while maintaining an imagined back-and-forth between her goldfish, Gilbert.

I’ve read a lot of solicitations where a series is pitched as being inspired by the incredible anime films of legendary director Hayao Miyazaki.  While I can’t remember if “The Seasons”  pitched its own comparison to Miyazaki’s works when it was first solicited, this is the first comic I’ve read that actually evokes a favorable comparison in my mind.  The setting is definitely reminiscent of the director’s European-influenced style as its young female protagonist.  Yet it’s also story driven and is completely integral to the plot as well.  I don’t think we’ll ever see the man himself adapt this as his next film, but I’m surprised to feel a little disappointed by that.

All of this may suggest that the rest of the volume fails to live up to the wondrous spectacle of that first issue.  That wouldn’t be untrue, but it would sell the rest of it short.  Much of the rest of vol. 1 involves Summer trying to deal with the threat of the circus while her sisters are either absent/missing, busy dealing with their artistic impulses and mood swings, or terminally self-absorbed.  Meanwhile, the circus plans to extend its influence throughout the town and we find out that it may even be connected to the disappearance of the Seasons’ parents.

This all plays out while showcasing some of Remender’s familiar issues as a writer:  His penchant for grinding his protagonists down is evident here in seeing how Spring deals with the lack of support she receives from her siblings.  The business with the mirrors also suggests he’s returning to a recurring theme about how technology hasn’t really made our lives better, and I’m going to be disappointed if “The Seasons” turns out to be one long screed against cellphone use.

The good news is that these things are balanced against the title’s upbeat tone and winning protagonist.  Spring’s optimism feels genuine and she’s got an undefeatable spirit that leads her to mix it up with some thugs who break into the family house late at night.  Azaceta’s work also continues to dazzle throughout the rest of the volume, delivering another memorable sequence late in the volume as Summer gets her moment in the spotlight.  This is actually revelatory work from the artist as I’ve mainly seen his work associated with either gritty adventure or outright horror stories, most memorably in the Robert Kirkman-written “Outcast.”  Here, Azaceta shows that he’s much more than that and I look forward to seeing what else he can do in the remainder of this series.

Which honestly feels like it’s meant to run around twelve issues or so.  What we get in this first volume feels like the start of one extended storyline and I’m not sure how much material Remender and Azaceta can wring out of the threat presented by an evil circus.  No matter how dazzlingly it’s rendered.  That, and with this first volume only collecting four issues, three volumes of that length feels about right, while four might be one too many.  However long “The Seasons” turns out to be, this first volume makes following it to its end feel like a very enticing proposition.