The Massive #20

Released by: Dark Horse Comics
Released on: February 26, 2014

Running through a world that's rebuilding “post-Crash,” central character Callum Israel is on the run from the evil Arkady. Members of his old team are being rounded up, the story opening on Mag Nagendra getting captured by some shadowy types and forced to decode a “black box” of sorts. That box's content has now made its way to the hacker Yusup, who's working for Arkady but is also an old friend to Cal. So the two meet to talk this out…

Their conversation quickly turns to The Massive, the secret project that Cal can't remember but knows is the key to fixing this broken world. The data from the black box is related to the Massive but Yusup is unsure how. What he's worked out, though, is that the data relates to song notes - a song that Cal remembers being special to his gal, Mary…but how, exactly, did this device record a song at the bottom of the ocean that she knows?

Meanwhile, Mag is put into a cell and ordered to give his captors all the details he can about Cal and their old group, called Blackbell. He then narrates a history of this shadow organization that belonged to no country, serving only multinational interests. Later, though, after it's disbanded, Cal and Mag for Ninth Wave, bent on fighting back against corporate multinationalism. But when he tells his captors that Cal is dead and provides some proof, his future is uncertain. That is, until Arkady shows up and springs him from his cell…

Cal and Yusup continue their discussion, especially around Mary. It's at this time that Yusup postulates that she may not actually exist or exist in the way Cal thinks she does and that The Massive is tied up into all of it. All parties then head off to Prague, to play out the next chapter as they're all coming together, at last.

Brian Wood's story is very layered, very dense, but he keeps it navigable by moving only between two or three characters here. The socio-political overtones are certainly prevalent here but not played as heavy-handed and that's refreshing. It keeps us engaged in the spy story elements well. And Garry Brown's artwork is appropriately dark and shadowy most of the time, as the mystery behind The Massive gets whittled away at (and the panels grow more light-filled). An intriguing entry in today's world of comics, for those looking for more serious or dramatic fare.