“Ever since I was a young lad, I dreamed of traveling to exotic places and having grand adventures.”
From that first block of text that opens Figment #2 really serves to lay out the foundation of this entire series. Pure unadulterated imagination is once again at play here as our protagonist, Blarion Mercurial literally dives into a world of his own imagination. Jim Zub is clearly working in a world that he loves taking us, the readers, on a journey like no other. It’s safe to safe that the Figment series is unique among its peers and stands out among the dozens of books we see released each week.
What we see is a mixture of two personalities at play. We get to experience this new world through the more scientific mind of Mercurial while also getting to see it through the wide-eyed wonder that a child may have with Figment. Both of these characters want the same thing, but have a slightly different take on handling situations. What makes this great is that both characters are essentially the same person, as Figment was imagined into being by Mercurial and is a representation of his inner child (Our at least that’s how I read it).
The back and forth between the two characters is a delight and you get the sense, even at this early stage, of the deeper connection between the two. While this style of silly banter may fall flat in many other books, in the Figment series it helps bring us as readers closer to the characters. The world that Mercurial has imagined into existence is full of all sort of fantastical and whimsical creatures and the cover shows us one of this worlds new friends.
On top of the wonder of exploration, Figment #2 throws a few monkey wrenches into the fix for our lively cast of compatriots. First is what appears to be this stories antagonists for the time being. A strange, pixy like race that can manifest sound into pure matter, a fantastic mutant power is there ever was one. There is a fun little segment at ends our story and sets up next months issue. If that weren’t enough (The book is jam-packed with content) we also get to see Mercurial’s boss back on the other side of the portal dealing with whats been left behind.
While not a bad-guy, he is the old fuddy-duddy with no sense of wonder to him, and it’s because of this that things start to go terribly wrong back home. His mind is that of a seasoned scientist and because of that demands structure, demands order to everything around him. As you may imagine this has a strange effect on Mercurial’s machine, creating the Singular Commander, a being that looks like a crazed robot that got loose from the Innoventions attraction at Disneyland.
Figment #2 is a pure joy to read and an even more amazing feast for the eyes. The art team is taking Jim Zub’s vision and painting pure imagination. Filipe Andrade’s style of art fits like a glove and one really couldn’t ask for more, while the coloring of Jean-Francios Beaulieu is some of those most amazing that I have seen in any book. If this is the kind of work and stories we are going to keep getting from the mixing of Disney and Marvel then count me on-board %100.
Figment #2 is another fantastic ride that doesn’t show any signs of slowing. If you have kids or just love a journey through the imagination of some really amazing talent, pick up Figment #2 right now.
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