Redcoat vol. 1
His name is Simon Pure, and he’s anything but as you’ll know after reading through this volume. As a soldier in the British Army during the American Revolution he ran for his life after witnessing what George Washington was really capable of, and found himself right in the middle of a mysterious ceremony involving Benjamin Franklin. After interrupting this ceremony, Simon found that its effects left him immortal and he has since spent the next hundred-plus years living hand-to-mouth and being kind of a dick to most everyone he encounters. That changes in 1892 when a young German boy informs Simon that only he can save America from a great evil!
“Redcoat” is the latest series from writer Geoff Johns and the newest member of The Unnamed alongside Geiger and Junkyard Joe. It is also, and there’s no other way to say it, quite silly. Not the bit about Simon becoming immortal, but everything surrounding it. Like the prologue that involves Paul Revere’s midnight ride and some magical fireflies. Or how George Washington is able to use magic to take out a British regiment. Or the real identity of the kid Simon encounters. Or Benedict Arnold: Just a victim of bad press!
I think the issue here is that “Redcoat” was pitched as the adventures of an immortal British mercenary and that requires a certain kind of suspension of disbelief. However, all of the other things Johns adds to the story here require more and different kinds of that. To the point where you either throw the book down in disgust because the silliness has curdled into stupidity and you’d rather not see how much more ridiculous things can get.
Or, if you’re like me, you wind up laughing at the story and are actually entertained by this stuff and are curious to see what craziness Johns has in store for you on the next page. Which, by the end of vol. 1, involves nothing less than the FATE OF AMERICA ITSELF! The writer does a good job of building to this point by keeping the pace quick and providing some twists and compilations along the way. Some of these are quite predictable, but there’s at least one thing among them you probably won’t see coming.
It also helps that the whole volume is illustrated by Bryan Hitch. Still one of the best artists in the business, the man shows that he can do action spanning multiple eras here and skillfully realize all of the silliness and weirdness on display in this volume. His work energizes Simon’s journey even if most of the action is relatively small-scale. Hitch doesn’t really get a chance to show off until the story’s climax in the volume’s penultimate issue.
Then vol. 1 closes out with a more sentimental tale as Simon encounters the boy who helped him out in this story as an old man. I get that we’re supposed to feel for him as the man who will remain eternally young as all his friends and lovers grow old and die. That stuff is usually the least interesting bit of “Frieren” and Johns and Hitch don’t do it any better here. We do get hints of Simon’s other adventures here, but the sentimental side of “Redcoat” is easily its least interesting one.
No, give us more famous historical figures as sidekicks! More immortal characters for Simon to butt heads with! More Founding Fathers who are versed in the ways of magic! I worry that Johns isn’t aware of the kind of silliness he and Hitch have delivered with this first volume and that subsequent ones will be more straight-faced in an attempt to get us to take things seriously. If that’s the case then I can’t see myself following “Redcoat” to the end of its run. Yet I’ll be back for vol. 2 just to see how more or less silly things get.