The Weatherman #1
Publisher: Image Comics
Story: Jody Leheup
Pencils: Nathan Fox
Colors: Dave Stewart
Letters: Steve Wands
Cover: Nathan Fox
It’s the year 2077. Seven years ago, an incident on the planet Earth lead to its destruction and the deaths of 18 billion people. Today, the remnants of the human race living on Mars mourn the destruction and loss of loved ones on a near daily basis. Their only solace for this mourning lies in the humor and over the top antics of Nathan Bright, TV Weatherman.
With a name like Weatherman you may be expecting a Ron Burgundy inspired comedy. The opening pages of Weatherman certainly lend themselves to that idea. However, Jody Leheup has developed a character that is interestingly multilayered. Nathan’s free spirited character is ultimately revealed to be a veneer for a more conflicted mind. Nathan doesn’t know who he is as he has no recollection of the events prior to the destruction of Earth. He’s strongly attached to the things in his immediate control like his dog and lives moment to moment in a constant state of uncertainty. His antics are as much to alleviate this uncertainty as to help others do the same.
Artist Nathan Fox does a wonderful job depicting Nathan and the people of the Weatherman throughout the course of the issue. From it’s somber opening of the mass mourning of the people to the crazy on air hijinks of Nathan himself to a tense situation toward the end of the book, Fox never once drops the ball. From the sorrow to the laughter and on to the anger and hurt Fox nails every beat, never failing the hold the reader’s attention and convey how the characters are feeling from moment to moment. This is a good complement to the turns that Leheups story takes from page to page as it’s obvious that you the reader should be emotionally attached to these characters going forward. It should be noted that Fox’s consistent work extends to the action scene that closes out the issue and I was personally amazed at flawlessly he illustrated a sequence that could easily have been a highlight in an action film.
When I first opened Weatherman I honestly didn’t know what I was expecting. The cover looked fairly silly and I thought it was gonna be a comedy book. I was happy to be wrong. Nathan Bright, without knowing, is a wanted man and while I liked his happy go lucky personality in the beginning it was the sincerity in his character that made me love and invest in him as a character most notably toward the end when the book takes it’s dark turn. Being a character thrown into a situation where everyone, including the people he trusts, are all apart of plot to capture of kill him you can’t help but to feel sorry for Nathan Bright and that’s a huge testament to the skills of both Jody Leheup and Nathan Fox especially when you find out why he’s so important.
You should be reading The Weatherman. It is a great book and deserves everyones attention. Don’t pass it by. 5/5
Eric Snell
esnell@comicattack.net
