[Trade Winds] The Foundation TPB

Posted by Adam on August 31, 2008

(BOOM! Studios)

Ever since mankind has been telling stories, we’ve relied on the trope of mystical guidance to move the plot along. From oracles to prophecies to psychics, the idea of characters being guided by supernatural exposition is almost indispensable to genre stories; in fact, it’s more or less the point at which storytelling overlaps with religion. You could even argue that it’s a crucial part of why we tell stories in the first place: to show how human lives are linked to the divine, and to reinforce the idea that there’s some grander plan out there.

All very powerful stuff, but there are a lot of potential downsides to using mystical guidance in a story, too. When exposition is delivered by a mere human, it’s to be expected that there will be gaps in their understanding, hence their inability to give the protagonists (and the audience) everything they want to know. But when you’ve got an all-knowing entity predicting the future or revealing hidden truths, the temptation becomes too great to ask, “Why not just be straight with us?” Why reveal the truth in riddles, or remain vague on crucial details? The answer, of course, is that it’s usually necessary for the plot–but that just makes the supernatural entities in question seem kinda dickish. And since the author of any given story is effectively God, he or she has to be held accountable for this kind of behaviour as well.

The Foundation, written by John Rozum with art by “Chee” (seriously, that’s how he or she is billed) and colors by Pablo Quiligotti, actually attempts to grapple, to some extent, with these issues. It’s not always completely successful, but it’s nice to see someone making the effort, at least.

Stephen Valentine is an agent of the titular Foundation. It’s one of those Da Vinci Code-style ancient societies that have been operating in secret for hundreds of years, undiscovered by any modern agency. Their founder was one Michel de Nostradame, better known as Nostradamus, and their mission is to keep his prophecies from coming true (which is why there’s such ambiguity about whether Nostradamus was ever accurate in his predictions–The Foundation prevented most of them from happening). These “Quatrain Prevention Assignments”–now there’s a bit of jargon for you–frequently involve letting innocent people die to serve a greater good, and the moral toll this takes on Valentine is beginning to mount up. He’s on the verge of quitting after One Last Assignment–but when that assignment goes horribly wrong, he suddenly finds himself The Foundation’s last hope.

Let’s get this out of the way up front: this book features sketchy characterizations, a premise that’s less than blazingly original, and way, way too much exposition–page after page of talking heads expounding on the book’s themes and some of the minute details of how the Foundation and Nostradamus’s prophecies work. What’s more, for all this talk, you don’t get to know any of the characters very well, except Valentine, and he’s a pretty generic action hero. The art, meanwhile, is effectively simple but far from dazzling; Chee has some tight, clear storytelling, and does a good job keeping the characters distinct from each other, but he and Quiligotti are frequently reduced to rendering static conversations against blank backgroundsÃ¢â‚¬Â¦which isn’t their fault, of course. Again, Rozum’s script is the culprit here–while the dialogue is well-handled enough, there’s far too much of it, at the expense of incident and visual narrative.

Yet for all that, the story does prove to be surprisingly engaging. Needless to say, I’ve been entertained by action movies with far thinner plots than we get here, and once Rozum sees fit to throw the story for a twist, it’s good enough to keep the pages turning, at least. What’s more, the Big Reveal of the Villain’s Master Plan is extremely well done, and adds an interesting wrinkle to the story’s theme; in fact, it had me sympathizing with him against the Foundation, which seems to be the point. (Though I’ll admit I’m not sure how his motives compelled his actions, exactly.)

By the end of this trade, the stage is set for a much more interesting conflict on both a philosophical and narrative level. If Rozum had shown more of an aptitude for pacing and incident, if he’d been able to bring his world to life more effectively, I’d be dying to pick up the next volume. As it is, so far, The Foundation just seems to be scratching the surface of what it could be.

[Trade Winds] The Foundation TPB

Filed Under: Trade Winds

Tags: 3/5, Boom, Espionage, foundation

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