Curt Pires writes, Antonio Fuso draws and Stefano Simeone colours one of the most explosive spy stories around. Wyrd, now in trade format, comes from Dark Horse.
In this edition, which collects single issues along with an excellent creator(s) interview and bonus short stories, we get up close and personal with immortality.
Wyrd, the James-Bond-style special ops guy, is pretty much immortal. Sort of like a slimmer Captain America, he’s a government science experiment gone rogue. His handlers are manipulators, his foes are disturbed superhumans.
Curt Pires’ writing is terse, the situations tense. Hostage takers, psychopaths, political hacks, and others, all ‘get it’. Wyrd takes his licks too; bones broken but spirit intact. He can heal quickly, so he gets to break himself all over again, page by page.
Antonio Fuso’s visuals are kinetic, full of strong composition, panel dynamism. The drawing style could be described as ‘constrasty realism’, with accurate anatomy and choreography, but enhanced light and shadow. Like Wyrd, a yin yang of light and dark.
Stefano Simeone brings a fascinating palette and colour knowledge to the Wyrd printed page. As he describes in the interview included later in the issue, he avoids the “rainbow effect”, instead making arbitrary decisions that enhance mood and drama but constrict the palette.
It’s a powerful collection of adventures, but sometimes confusing to read. We spend a lot of time ‘righting’ ourselves; the Wyrd story is mixed up in time, unexplained. Upside down and backwards. We go back and forth, page by page, tossed into situations with few clues. It’s up to us to understand. But the effort in decoding the drama is ultimately worthwhile, punchy, and memorable.
Dark Horse, Wyrd, Trade, $19.99 for 144 pages, 16+
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