2 out of 5

‘Brass Sun’ sprang from 2000 AD.  I don’t know if the standard comic-sized imprint for them is new, but it’s new to me, and the presentation is impressive – glossy, thick covers, solid pages, bright colors.  And I don’t believe Edginton cheated on this either – this isn’t represented ‘Brass Sun’ progs; it appears to be a new tale, written for a full length format.  It’s a very heady concept of a universe of worlds set on struts that rotate around the titular brass sun, with the general belief being that the things just sort of poofed into existence as such… though there appears to be some building momentum for an opposing view, that of a watchmaker of sorts who would’ve put the pieces of the universe into place and set them a’spin.  Men in power have forbidden the use of lenses for research (and presumably other instruments) to prevent further understanding of how the world works.  Issue one drops us into a bit of confusion with a young girl witnessing the destruction of her mentor, who’d taught her the ways of free thought.  She uses a key given to her by this mentor to escape into ‘the spar,’ which is maybe the name of the post on which the world spins.  I don’t really know.  And therein lies my problem with the series, and while I’ll probably be dropping it after issue 2.  The opening ish teeter totters just on the edge of throwing too much bits and pieces of story at us without giving us a clear throughline, and then the following issue just topples right off the edge.  I flipped back through issue one and then reread issue two and I still didn’t quite get the context.  And then some characters pop up that I’d seen in the progs but hadn’t had proper intros in the comic form yet…  so I can’t tell if this is meant to be enjoyed as-is (which I would assume) or as a supplement to what’s come before.  And I feel I really shouldn’t have to ask myself that.

I.N.J. Culbard’s simple and sleek line art is very graceful, with large and clear layouts; the book is definitely pretty to look at.  And the concept is compelling.  But it feels like too much world-building and not enough story, making our intro into the world very haphazard.