Comic Review: gen:LOCK “unwelcome:GUESTS Part 1”

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

Kazu ruminates on his past as the team is led into custody. They can’t help but notice the less than warm welcome from people who should be on their side, but Kazu is pretty sure they’re not going to be executed. However, he can’t give them much more info than that considering how long it’s been since he’s been back. To pass the time in transit, Cammie, Chase, and Caliban re-enter the Ether to investigate “Sycorax”, but come up with no leads. And even then, the investigation is cut short, as Chase senses his Holon body is under attack. Only it’s not Union, it’s the Japanese Polity. With the rest of the team imprisoned, their situation couldn’t look direr.

OUR TAKE

The second proper issue begins as we get a better look within the Japanese Polity and Kazu’s past within it. As mentioned, his background was pretty scarcely mentioned in the main series, so it’s pretty surprising that we would be getting such crucial information from a supplemental comic as opposed to the show it is based on. I’m certainly eager to learn more, especially while we’re in this show’s version of Japan, it just seems curious that a main character’s backstory and own hang ups are relegated to this instead of being made use of in the series. It makes you wonder what stuff actually made the cut over this.

The Japanese Polity also proves to show that other countries aren’t necessarily going to be thinking in the ESU’s best interest, even if they’re technically on the same side. Makes sense, considering that they don’t have direct experience with what’s been going on in the US and have their own issues to deal with, but it also helps to expand the show’s world just a bit in showing how, despite the lines seemingly drawn between the Union and Polity, there are shades of gray to look out for. Certainly more than the show itself gave us in its first season.

And there’s a bit of nudging in the Scyorax subplot as The C Team (Chase, Cammie, and Caliban) look through Siege for answers. Again, this is the logical next step, seeing how the way Chase was given the name was through playing the game. But what I want to know is why Caliban didn’t immediately do a google search or know the literary connections to his own friggin’ name! Sycorax is the mother of Caliban in the Shakespeare play, “The Tempest”, and I highly doubt that Weller named Caliban without some sort of connection in mind. It’s not known yet what connection Sycorax has, if any, to Caliban, but I’m going to be really disappointed if it just turns out to be totally coincidental.

Also, another error in the dialogue, this time slightly more egregious. As Kazu notes the important years in his life, he describes the present year as 2069. This shouldn’t be, as the year the series begins in is 2068, when the Battle of New York takes place, followed by a four year time jump to 2072. And as much as I would love a miniseries taking place in the time jump to make use of the “69” gag, it’s not quite where we are now.