If you’re into ironic live-action in comics, parallel universes or mundane dialog from a character that is not only uninteresting, but boring as well… then I invite you to take the Infinite Vacation. If none of those things interest you because you’ve read it all before then take the issue and seal it away in the hopes that it will be worth something in twenty years when Nick Spencer is writing everything in comics.
Long Version
Welcome to five comic pages explaining that you shouldn’t take off your name badge, because otherwise you’ll be lost to a life that you may not like. Or otherwise as Mark would say, “The difference between being spanked and spanking.” Then you’ll be greeted with three more pages of photo-shopped images of an actual person pitching the Infinite Vacation app to you. Of course the app is for your iphone 4 (they can travel to parallel worlds now if you didn’t know; it was with the last update that you didn’t do because you were waiting for the jail-broken version). The very creepy gentleman breaks the fourth wall and stares at the reader explaining the world of the Infinite Vacation in his generic sales pitch.
This is how the “app” works: You can bid on other “you’s” lives in an effort to live differently than the way you chose. So out of the millions to billions of parallel “you’s” out there, you are buying their life and they are then taking over yours. Right here I have a major problem with the idea. Our main character never sells his life, he’s always buying and yet it seems like the main source of income for people using the app is selling their lives. And if you think about it, how sick is that? Some guy might be a killer and he’s bought your life and now you’re stuck unless you can then buy someone else’s life. Granted their all you, but how messed up do you have to be to sell your life for a chance to have a different outcome when forgetting to buy milk?
Mark is addicted to switching his life for something new and interesting. Surprisingly, switching from life to life has not given him any sort of fulfillment. Mark becomes even more troubled when thirteen other “him’s” turn up dead. Yes somehow this program keeps track of the life and death of… well you and conveniently informs you. Frankly the amount of raw processing power needed already makes this “app” impossible for a cell phone.
The story continues by adding attempts at humor and the addition of a class of people that either have nowhere to jump to or choose to stick with their decisions in life, called “deadenders.” Frankly though the character of Mark is so unlikeable and annoying it makes it impossible to care for him. He’s the hero of the story and basically the only character since he and his other selves run rampant throughout the book, but he and all his other selves are all annoying and hollow. Rather than different takes on the same character we’re given the same character with a different hair style and clothing. The all equate to shallow empty people with no personality, not even one to share between them.
Not everything Nick Spencer is going to do is going to be great, but I would settle for good. Especially since his work on Thunder Agents has been amazing and Morning Glories (if issue # 5 ever comes out) is starting to win me over. This issue also reeks of Sci-fi influences from 90’s Twilight Zone (Thanks Kevin) which goes to show that maybe his original ideas are all influenced by other sources as well.
I can’t imagine a wide-spread of people getting into the art, even though it is colorful and beautiful to look upon. Artist Christian Ward (Hybrid Bastards) is the perfect choice for a book that is extremely “trippy”, but at the same time he does not have a wide-spread appeal that other artist Spencer has worked with in the past. In general the art is good and easy on the eyes, but ultimately it has to work with the horribly dull story presented and it can manage to save what it has to work with.
Regardless of what I think the book will more than likely continue being a success, having already sold out the first issue on the distribution level and going in for a second print. That is if it continues to ship on time. Personally if you’re going to read this series I would wait for a collected trade since its 3.50 value is anything but. If you were lucky enough to get a first print and didn’t care for it, I would try to flip it for profit on eBay… who knows you may find mine up there too.
Story – 4.0
Plot – 4.0
Character – 3.0
Art – 5.0
Color – 4.5
Overall – 4.1
Dustin doesn’t own an iPhone and probably never will do to the fact that apple sucks. I’m sure you now want to scream at him and give him a million reasons why he’s wrong and you can do so on Twitter so that he can send you annoying responses.
