Anghus Houvouras reviews Zero #5…
“The solicitation text for this issue of ZERO has been censored by the Agency. There is nothing to see here.”
Warning spoilers ahead…
Last month I named Zero my favorite comic of 2013. It’s blend of espionage and sic-fi elements spoke to me. It’s ground in a dark, violent reality but there was always something larger lurking in the periphery. Elements of a more frightening world creeping in eluding to a larger threat than the cloak and dagger stories were telling us. Like a good spy story, there were secrets being kept from the reader as well as the main character. The fifth issue gives us our first look at the insanity that writer Ales Kot has been brewing since this brilliant series launched last year.
Edward Zero is a cold, calculating killing machine. An orphaned child raised in a cult of killer trained to suppress emotion and sharpen his senses with razor sharp precision. He’s very good at what he does. Over the first four issues, we’ve seen Zero deal with a number of potential threats and handle them all in spite of personal sacrifice and tragic loss.
The fifth issue gives us our most blunt look at the character. In the aftermath of a battle that cost him his eye, Zero is debriefed and reviewed by his superiors to see if he is still fit for combat. There are doubts plaguing Zero, though his training and a steady diet of medications keep him in a perpetual state of catatonia. Like many soldiers, he is programmed a certain way the aching need to know more is constantly at odds with the training that has molded him into the blunt instrument he has become. Zero finally makes a choice to reject his engineering and break free of the medically induced control methods.
His relationship with his handler Roman Zizek has always been complicated. There’s a paternal instinct, a need to protect Zero from his superiors, though up until now we don’t really know why. The fifth issue finally plays its hand, revealing a larger conspiracy involving something… otherworldly. It’s subtle, though there had been some breadcrumbs laid out. The world that Zero exists in has been showcasing some science fiction augmentation and it feels like that is about to get ratcheted up as we learn that something catastrophic is in the works, potentially an extinction level event. Like every issue of Zero, we’re given clues to the puzzle but the answers aren’t always perfectly clear.
Zero #5 is another gripping yarn. This is a must read title for comic fans.
The collected trade of the first five issues is available on February 19th and can be pre-ordered here
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Anghus Houvouras is a North Carolina based writer and filmmaker. His latest work, the novel My Career Suicide Note, is available from Amazon.
Originally published January 22, 2014. Updated November 7, 2019.
