3 out of 5

Haha, seriously, though, how did Chuck Austen get to write this stuff for Marvel? I’m saying that – as an Austen fan – as a bit of praise: the series he wrote were sometimes so left-field in their composition, so not how we’d expect Marvel / DC books to be written, that it makes me long for this era of riskier ventures amongst the Big Two. There’s plenty of great stuff still being made, there were just some pockets for the publishers where weird stuff slipped through.

…Setting aside the Austen factor, there was also the time: post-9/11. Comics got dark again. And I passed on this book the first time out because it was written to “celebrate” (*cough* take advantage of) our overwhelming appreciation for first-responders at the time by crafting a superhero team formed of paramedics, firemen, and cops. It still has that taint to it. But it’s otherwise far behind the general weirdness of Chuck’s approach, which was fine with just lambasting the reader with violence and tragedy and creepiness, and only vaguely hinting at what the story might be. Yes, part of that was indulgent of that “darkness,” but I don’t mean to suggest that it’s outright exploitative: just that the would-be heroes of The Call are given a pretty grim origin story, only we’re not really being told it’s an origin story… and then the series was canceled before Chuck and artist Pat Olliffe had time to start stringing things together, so there’s a hyper rush in issues 3 and 4 to give it direction, following issues 1 and 2’s trial-by-fire body horror stuff. (Which doesn’t really cease in issues 3 and 4, mind you.)

It’s also worth bearing in mind that this was the intended ongoing followup to several lead-in miniseries, so if you’re experiencing some in media res-shock at the book’s outset – that’s partially why, and admittedly partially why Chuck was able to get away with dropping in characters and concepts with zero setup: because they’d already been setup. It’s still strange to not give readers some preamble with a new #1, and I kinda love how the book is all gas. I’m so curious how this would’ve played out if it’d been allowed to settle into a cadence. Oh well.

In The Call, we’re initially being told some recent events that occurred at The Knox building – the call was put out to “junkies” that “free drugs” were available at the building, only for the drugs to turn out to be toxic chemicals which turned them into flaming zombies – by undercover agent Shannon Lawrence, while she’s being cruelly tortured into reciting these events by the owner of the building, Jeriah Halidon. Because he had plans to take over the world with those flaming junkies, you see, only his plans were foiled by those dang cops! And paramedics! And firemen! And Shannon! Later, a select cop, paramedic, fireman and Shannon get some cruelly torturous superpowers (e.g. you are now on fire all the time, but you can control it) and need to team up to foil Halidon. That – spoiler – essentially happens, although the teaming up is roundabout as hell and, seriously, none of the team gets to feel very powerful with these superpowers – Austen and Olliffe depict them as dreadful stuff.

The book’s narrative / Chuck is banking on us getting to know the cast along the way and play catch up on weird plot points like a ghost girl who seems to know Halidon’s plans, employing an appreciated technique of dialoguing story to us while the art itself depicts something else going on. Appreciated for respecting the readers’ capabilities, but admittedly confusing in the hyper compressed storytelling, not to mention some beats where we’re jumping between explaining past events that may or may not’ve happened in this series versus the other miniseries, and I really can’t tell if Olliffe is depicting the “right” scene. And, again, the vaingloriousness of the “all cops are awesomeeee” vibes butt up against any characterization work – like, we just need to assume everyone here is a good person.

So it’s a mess. But it’s a mess that is quite fun to read, and has staying power because of its big swings in storytelling and Marvel MAX-ish mood.