Hotwire: Requiem for the Dead
Warren Ellis’ name may be on the cover of this graphic novel, but it’s not his show. This is all about Steve Pugh, a veteran artist with a long history of work with DC, Marvel, and numerous other companies. I’m familiar with him through his collaborations with Garth Ennis on the “Preacher: Saint of Killers” miniseries and a few parts of “Hitman.” His characters always had a “fleshy” look that made them stand out, especially when the stories in question called for parts of them to be blown off in some fashion. I can’t say that his work was of such quality that I preferred it over either writers’ other frequent collaborators, but whenever I saw his name in the credits I felt the story was in good hands. “Hotwire” represents the first writing I’ve read from him. Though the story does feel very Ellis-y it’s pretty serviceable overall. It’s the art, though, that represents the real revelation here.
As I said, Pugh’s style is distinctive but not something inherently exciting. That’s what I was expecting when I opened this book. I did not get that. “Hotwire” is a fully-painted work from the artist and the results are, quite frankly, stunning. Right off the bat, the sequential artwork is almost just as good as the cover to this collection. Pugh’s characters also look like real people with believable expressions and body language. It’s all set in the future with its cool tech, dystopian cityscapes and ghosts — I mean, “blue light” phenomena that manifest throughout the city.
These “blue light” events form the crux of the story as the “Hotwire” of the title is Alice, a detective exorcist associated with the city police. It’s her job to go around investigating these things and containing the hostile energies of these restless spirits. What’s interesting about these “ghosts” is that they’re not supernatural in nature. Though a good deal of the people in this world continue to believe that, the “blue light” can be contained through rational, scientific means. That’s a spin I haven’t seen on the genre before and even if it is a sci-fi “Hellblazer” at heart, it still has its own unique voice.
That bit comes from Alice herself, who is a very intelligent, passionate and arrogant individual who suffers no fools. She does come off as a character who wouldn’t be out of place in one of Ellis’ own stories, but without the familiar dialogue cadences. There’s also a fair amount of “ends justify the means” thinking to her as well. Together with a regular detective, Mobey, currently on not-suspension for punching a masked fifteen-year-old protester on camera, they investigate a new breed of blue light which is resistant to the usual exorcism methods. The overall story is decently put together and explores the world and its concepts well enough. I did find the motivations of the mastermind behind the city riot to be pretty interesting, though the art impresses far more than the narrative does overall.
In fact, this whole project comes off as a lead-in for more stories involving Ms. Hotwire as there are a few seeds planted for such throughout. Judged on the basis of whether or not it makes me want to read more of this, it succeeds. However, it doesn’t appear that we’ll be getting it anytime soon. So we’re left with a decent story with incredible art and a lot of potential that will probably go unfulfilled. In the meantime, Pugh is now the regular artist on “Animal Man” so one can hope that he’s biding his time with regular work and building up his profile and resources so he can come back to this someday. After this, that’s something I’d like to see.