Snapshot

You know, even though they’ve produced great work together and I may have even described writer Andy Diggle and artist Jock as “one of the most reliably entertaining teams in comics” at one point, they actually haven’t done a whole heck of a lot of work together.  There’s their signature title, “The Losers,” and the very good “Green Arrow:  Year One.”  After that, there’s just this.  Still, “Snapshot” proves that the two work great together right up to a divisively cynical ending.

Jake Dobson is a resident of San Francisco who doesn’t drive, he bikes, and spends his days working at a comic shop while his buddy Steve hangs out and tries to avoid his girlfriend’s activist tendencies.  One day on the way to work, Jake finds an abandoned smartphone in a park and what he finds on there leads to the most harrowing day of his life.  Pictures of a dead man are on the phone and Jake quickly finds himself the target of a hitman determined to get that phone back at all costs.

Now, you’d think that any sane individual would go to the police when they find pictures of a dead person on a phone they just found.  Diggle has you covered there as that’s Jake’s first move, only to have things go in a significantly different direction than he, and I for that matter, expected.  Though the first issue collected here is more concerned with setup and establishing the concept and certain members of the cast, things really get moving in the second as Diggle and Jock show you why they’re some of the best action storytellers around.

From chases on foot, bike, and by car, the series moves at a propulsive pace with even the conversation scenes maintaining the tension thanks to Jock’s style.  The story also takes some interesting detours into conspiracy-theory territory as we learn what the hitman’s real goal was and how it connects to The Guys Who Really Run Things.  Yes, there are some the usual action-movie implausibilities involving standoffs and killers who talk too much, but Jake is a sympathetic character, as is his eventual partner Callie, and things move fast enough that we don’t have to linger on these parts.

What we do get to linger on is the ending.  For a story that involves The Guys Who Really Run Things, you’d imagine that Jake winds up exposing them to the world in order to satisfy the reader’s sense of self-justice.  That… doesn’t happen.  Diggle even cops to the fact that his ending isn’t the most upbeat of things, yet I think it works in the concept of the story.  The Guys Who Really Run Things turn out to be incredibly pragmatic about this whole situation and I believe that the situation they come up with to resolve everything works in the context of the story.  Jake was just an ordinary guy who works at a comic store and the idea that he could actually change the world or expose the conspiracy of conspiracies is completely at odds with the tone that “Snapshot” has.  The ending we get here is extremely cynical about the way the world works and is almost certain to put off anyone who thinks otherwise or is looking for something life-affirming.  It is, in my opinion, the happiest one that Jake could’ve hoped for given his circumstances.

If that sounds like something you can accept, then you’re likely to enjoy all of “Snapshot.”  Those of you looking for something more conventionally entertaining from Diggle and Jock (as well as several other talented artists), are recommended to check out “The Losers,” which remains their most purely entertaining work.  This title, however, was a nice change of pace from their company-owned/creator participation titles and I’d certainly like to see them continue in this vein for future projects.