3 out of 5

Debris was the first Wiebe book to catch my eye, and probably has the most exciting concept backing it out of all of his books, but it also is, content-wise, the only one that ends up falling flat.  Riley Rossmo’s excellently-designed covers – fluid combinations of intricate robotic-designs with plenty of negative space – highlight the world within, which is a fairly barren, waterless wasteland with aggressive robotic beasts dotting the expanses between cities.

Wiebe has shown himself capable of handling complicated set-ups over only a few issues – Grim Leaper was pretty high concept but succeeded because it revolved moreso around its characters, and the same goes for Green Wake, though that certainly had extra issues to let its story grow.  Debris is down to four, and though the central character – the protector of the city, a right passed down for generations, owner of the only weapon in town, the payload of which can only be spent upon death of the user – though this central character is shown from training to taking over the mantle to full-fledged enforcer, her progress takes a backseat to the action.  The driving concept in Debris is the search for water, and the main character risks it all (and perhaps the safety and future of her city) to pursue what she believes is the truth behind ancient stories of water in faraway lands…

Sound promising?  Sound hefty for four issues?  To be fair, though the pace is pretty quick from the start, with explanations coming more from showing than telling (which is excellent, but this is one story which has so many odd aspects – the robot beasties, for example – that some extra exposition to flesh it out would’ve been desired), so I can’t say that Wiebe dug too deep of a ditch for himself – there’s the sense that he knows the overall story, knows the details of this world, and wanted to tell it in as compressed a form as possible.  Goal achieved, but it robs the progress of grand gestures, such that this giant trek doesn’t seem so giant, and a devastating last issue battle is just a flash before the story ends.

I’m on Wiebe’s side because he keeps showing different directions in which he’s capable of – and has – grown.  The decision to pursue this as a quick action / quest story is admirable, but the pacing needs a bit more ramping up (instead of smoothing out, as was done here) and the openness regarding the story details is even fine, if we’d been given one extra issue to let it sink in, and Rossmo the extra page count to let us get to know these characters.