FBP: Federal Bureau of Physics vol. 3 — Audeamus

I forgot to mention it in yesterday’s rundown of September’s solicitations, but this title is wrapping up its run with issue #24.  That makes this the next-to-last volume and you can see the rush to wrap things up in the main story.  First, we get a flashback illustrated by the title’s cover artist, Nathan Fox, which shows us how wild-haired FBP member Cicero DeLuca not only joined the organization, but went on to become a field agent instead of a researcher.  Writer Simon Oliver cleverly inverts expectations by making the training academy for the organization one where the geeks who solve the physics problems are more highly valued than the jocks who have to actually go in and implement the solutions.  Oliver also ties things into the main plot by having Cicero become inspired to change his focus after reading the writings of fellow FBP agent Adam Hardy’s father.  We also get to see Cicero’s first real test as a field agent where things do not wrap up as tidily and heartwarmingly as you’d expect.  Overall, this two-issue arc is one of the better storylines I’ve read in this series as it successfully fleshes out Mr. DeLuca’s character while offering some appealingly off-kilter art from Fox.

Then we get back to the main story in the four issues remaining and you can feel Oliver rushing to wrap this series up as best he can.  Forget the de-regulation of the physics protection industry set up in the first volume, we find out exactly what’s behind the need for such a thing in the first place.  Turns out that the universe is still expanding, but the dark matter used to support it has run out.  Now, Adam and his fellow agents are going to have to work with billionaire industrialist Lance Blackwood, who also happens to be former colleague of Adam’s father, in order to create more dark matter and save reality as we know it.  There are some interesting ideas here, such as seeing how Adam survives a close encounter with a quantum tornado, and new artist Alberto Ponticelli turns out to be better at the weird stuff than he is with the ordinary human-interaction parts.  Yet you can feel the rush the narrative is in to set up this end of the world scenario, and it makes for a less-than-involving read.  Oliver does get everything to a point at the end where he can hopefully decompress a little and allow the finale to unfold in a more natural fashion.  Overall, not bad, but when it comes to Vertigo series that were indulged to last as long as they did, I’m left wishing that “Hinterkind” had received the indulgence to last for four volumes like “FBP.”