REVIEW: Ether: The Copper Golems #1

In Matt Kindt and David Rubin“s “Ether: The Copper Golems”“ #1 (Dark Horse), readers are introduced to Boone Dias just as he is being bailed out of jail in Venice, Italy. Boone, the series protagonist, has a gruff, obstinate personality, and we quickly learn from his interview with a representative of “The Agency”“ that he has a past history with them that included him being an agent who traveled to a fairy-like dimension called The Ether.

Boone was very likely locked-up for stealing food from restaurants, making a Venice an excellent choice for his current pastime. According to him, food in the Ether is indigestible, so stealing and eating on earth is the best way for him to sustain himself. Clearly he spends more time in the Ether world than he does on earth even though he claims at the outset that he is no longer an employee of The Agency.

Boone Dias is an all too familiar hero/anti-hero whose motivations, at least for now, seem to be inconsequential. The earth scenes of this issue depict him as an almost flat character in the series. He doesn“t know or care too much about his family who he has apparently abandoned. Either he is a workaholic, a deadbeat father or some combination of the two. Most of the first half of this issue establishes the character of Boone on earth, making an inauspicious introduction to the series. In some ways Boone represents how comics fans sometimes feel about the actual world in which we live ”“ just one reason why some find escape in reading comics. And yet these readers may already want to be experiencing the world of Ether through someone else“s eyes.

But eventually the story shifts to the Ether itself ”“ the sci-fi fairy world that is the dominant setting of the series and the world that Boone clearly prefers to our own. His transition into the Ether is the most stunning visual depiction of the issue and it signals a powerful transition from the world that Boone dislikes into the realm in which he finds a more vibrant existence.

Once in the Ether, Boone“s personality is markedly different. He is almost bubbly. He even looks a little different in the Ether than he does on earth. Here again, David Rubin“s artwork is subtle and compelling. Even if the story and the character of the protagonist seem to be overused staples of comics and film, Rubin“s pencils help to make the world of Ether something all its own. 3/5.

[yasr_overall_rating size=”large”]

(W) Matt Kindt (A/CA) David Rubin