Random Article


 
Event News
 

COMIC BOOK REVIEW: Invisible Republic #5

 
InvisibleReupublic5
InvisibleReupublic5
InvisibleReupublic5

 
Overview
 

Story by: Gabriel Hardman & Corinna Bechko
 
Art by: Gabriel Hardman
 
Colors by: Jordan Boyd
 
Publisher:
 
FG RATING
 
 
 
 
 
4.5/ 5


User Rating
no ratings yet

 


To sum it all up..

PAST MEETS PRESENT Invisible Republic #5 by Gabriel Hardman, Corinna Bechko and Jordan Boyd continues to amaze readers with its riveting story plots and its unique parallel storytelling of the past and present that the tales of Adam McBride’s cousin and the disgraced faux journalist are intertwining at last in the fifth issue and the end […]

0
Posted July 30, 2015 by

 
FULL REVIEW
 
 

InvisibleReupublic5

PAST MEETS PRESENT

Invisible Republic #5 by Gabriel Hardman, Corinna Bechko and Jordan Boyd continues to amaze readers with its riveting story plots and its unique parallel storytelling of the past and present that the tales of Adam McBride’s cousin and the disgraced faux journalist are intertwining at last in the fifth issue and the end of the first story arc. I find this book similar in the most uncanny (or serendipitous) way in the lucid but dramatic historical narrative technique the British historian Lord Acton executed in explaining why the Roman Empire expired in his multi-volume magnum opus The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. Though Hardman and Bechko’s settings are in the possible human future, but narrating the dictator’s rise and fall, and the psychological and motivational possibilities behind his actions are strikingly up tuned with Acton’s terrific characterizations of the Roman emperors and their follies, the in-depth analyses of the causes of the Empire’s demise, and the possible motivations of other important historical figures of the said mighty empire. History is a great reminder of humanity’s hubris, pride and follies; and to repeat their past mistakes by simply ignoring these or to pride of not acknowledging these are the recipes of the tragic, if not cataclysmic, end of a powerful figure and/or nation/kingdom/empire/ country/society. Hardman, Bechko and Boyd are today’s the visual Lord Acton and we are just reading the first volume.

Indeed, the convergence of past and present is presented in the most engaging way that this appearance of the main protagonist in the end of the page makes us devoted and invested readers clamor for more stories/volumes/chapters to come, as long as the delays are not so agonizingly long nor the inconsistency of storytelling and artistry surfaces later on. History becomes the focal point of this convergence for the questions of historical authenticity, authority, accessibility, and most importantly, change come to the bigger picture. Who is telling the truth? Which sources are to be given emphasis, importance, relevance and selected? Who and what evidences are included, excluded, and even “created”? Is “official” history a myth or a slice of the actual reality? Is it really possible to know the “real” truth, or the “complete” history? How accessible are these historical sources to the general public, or to the selected few? And, what motive or motives do the person or persons in question had in mind then? Invisible Republic actually teaches readers to become more critical and perceptive in handling and reading the existing evidences/sources at hand, more over with the various and conflicting perspectives of the leading participants of the era in question, and even reflecting the after effects after the said end of an era or epochs. The fifth chapter presents these hard questions and we must be vigilant what the creative team has in-store in the next volume(s).

I decide to skip my previous criticisms since there are still the same as the previous reviews I often cited, but at least, the names of the characters are a bit “futuristic” to say the least, though the linguistic structure is still in the 21st century at best. Yet, Invisible Republic #5 and the series itself demand our attention. This is almost akin a textbook of future warning of humanity’s follies. Reading Invisible Republic is almost similar of the warnings of prophets and historians alike: Learn our mistakes to prevent tragedies all over again. Superb reading!


Paul Ramos

 


0 Comments



Be the first to comment!


Leave a Response

(required)