Hello & welcome back to A Look at Disney and we continue our look at Figment as we delve into the world of comics.
Cover
I love the cover, it's simple but effective as we Figment and Dreamfinder on the cover in front of gears of a clock.
The Staff
Writer - Jim Zub
I gotta say that Mr. Zub did a bang up job giving these two an origin story and really captured the spirit of Figment down to a tee. He made Figment come alive with how he wrote him and it felt as though Figment had flown off the page and into my room while I reading this comic.
The Plot
We open in London, England in 1910 as we see a brilliant but frazzled young man trying to make his way through the crowds as we see a building is spitting out black smoke. And this is when we get our first look at the young man that is to become Dreamfinder as he informs a man that has asked where he's going and replies that he is going to work. And the next page takes us into The Academy Scientifica-Lucidus est. 1881. Where we learn that the young man is named for Blair and that the black smoke is coming from that he was working on. And this is when our hero, Blairon Mercuria is approached by the Chairman of the Academy asking him what kind of experiment, he's working on. And that it's causing a slight problem. These things happen. Blair just chalks it up to a minor setback. The Chairman continues to scold Blair for his mistakes and Blair tries to reason with him. Which goes about as well as you might think.
While the Chairman is still talking to Blair, he runs off to see what is wrong with his latest experiment. And this leads us to the title page of this arc as this arc shares the ride of the name that inspired it. And we see the police there investigating Blair's machine and boy does he look nervous. But he holds as he explains to the cop that he shouldn't need a fire permit as something like it has never existed before. This thing is is an Integrated Mnemonic Convertor. Or at least, it was. The Chairman continues to scold Blair for wrecking the facility. Boy, things sure are looking grim for Blair. As the cop asks the Chairman, if he'll be pressing charges. There is one great panel, where Blair is looking down grimly as he thinks that it's all over. But the Chairman decides not to press charges and that'll deal with our young scientist himself. Blair tells the Chairman that he won't regret it but the Chairman says that he already does. The only reason, he decided not press charges was because his desire to not have the cops looking around was bigger than his anger with Blair. The Chairman says that he doesn't know what the experiment that Blair was working was supposed to be and reminds him of what he was supposed to be working on.
We have a mandate to seek out new sources of energy! If we don't achieve that post-haste, our grant funding will be whisked away faster than Halley's Comet!
Blair informs the Chairman that is what he was working on and this is when we learn of what Blair was working on. I'll let Blair explain it.
My machine is going to tap into the energy of the mind! It'll be brain power, literally!
The Chairman is none too impressed with this idea. And once again goes back to scolding Blair.
Rutherford and Royds are ionizing atoms and your'e wasting time to build a bloody brain battery? Your'e always chasing dreams instead of working with reality!
And degrades Blair and calls his invention stupid and tells him to start making real progress or he can head back to his poor family in the slums. Blair spends 10 hours working and we see the debris from his experiment cleaned up. As Blair still sits at his desk trying to come up with something new. But alas nothing seems to be coming to him. So, he goes back to working on his invention and eventually, his invention has come to fruition. And he realizes that he needs a brain with a lot of thoughts to test it out. So, he decides to test it out and activates the doo hickeys (not the scientific terms) to turn it on. And the next step is to think. And it seems to be doing something as we see memories of Blair's past as a young child. And the memories continue to take us through Blair's youth and I swear as a teen, he looks like a 1910's version of Egon from Ghostbusters. And we learn that Blair is so smart that he had trouble keeping attention in class because he didn't find the material interesting. And then we see him as a young boy and that he liked taking things apart. And we see him even younger. And this is when we get our first glimpse of Figment as the comic references the opening lyrics from One Little Spark.
Two tiny wings. Eyes, big and yellow.
And Figment continues to be created and we learn that Figment was created by Blair as his imaginary friend. And the comic takes us back to an adult Blair and something is happening. As Figment appears before the now adult Blair.
Man, it took forever for Figment to appear here. And no offense to Blair but I picked this up because of Figment. And while it may have taken forever for Figment to appear, when he speaks, I hear Billy Barty in my head as the words capture Figment perfectly. Understandably, Blair is taken aback as the presence of Figment and doesn't remember him at first. And Figment is depicted as being a joyful and playful sort but didn't answer Blair's question of what Figment was. And just like a child, Figment's mind races from one thing to the next. Blair is just trying to get Figment to stay still but he's not having much luck in that regard. And here Figment tries to get Blair to remember that he created him and Blair realizes that if Figment came from his machine, he can prove that it works. But Blair has no idea as how to explain to the Chairman how Figment came to be. Blair starts beating himself over not being able to deliver pure energy. The next morning, Blair is awaken in his office by the Chairman as he's come to see the progress that Blair has made. The Chairman see Blair's latest invention and says that it looks like the thing that burned from the previous day and Blair informs the Chairman that this is different, it uses magnets. And it's not ready for a demonstration just yet.
The Chairman tells Blair that he only has one week to get it ready. And we learn that if Blair doesn't make something really great, his family will be ruined. Figment not understanding that Blair needs to make an energy machine has a cute response.
I'm not energetic enough?
Oh comic, you know Figment so well. But according to Blair, Figment isn't. I'd dispute that personally but what do I know, I'm just a Figment fan and not his creator. So, Figment and Blair spend the next couple of days working on a new machine in order to impress the Chairman. And by the end of the week, Blair's newest machine is ready. But it doesn't seem to be working and Figment points out that Blair is the issue here.
It's you... you just have to use your imagination!
So after a little more back and forth between Blair and Figment, Blair continues to press on and work and it seems to be working. I think it may have worked a little too well as Blair opened a mind portal. Interesting, interesting. Does that work like the portals in Lego Dimensions? The Chairman comes to see what Blair is working on and is rather aghast. Though on the bright side, Blair's invention did work. That's a plus. But it seems to be pulling him and things from his office into another dimension. So, there's still some kinks to work out. These things happen. Though the Chairman orders Blair to turn the machine off this instance but that goes about as well as when Walter Peck shut down the containment unit at Ghostbusters HQ. Actually, worse for Blair. As Blair and Figment are pulled into the mind portal with the Chairman yelling at Blair to come back. Dude, I'm not sure that he knows how to. And the first issue ends with our main characters floating adrift in the mind portal, not knowing where they're heading next. Overall, this was a fine start to this first mini series. Though in the beginning, the pacing felt really sluggish and I forgot how long it took until Figment was introduced into the story. Which as a Figment fan is a bit disappointing.
Characters
There's only 3 characters to go over for this first issue. So, that'll make this easy.
Main Characters
Blair
Blair isn't Dreamfinder just yet but rather this story is about his journey to becoming Dreamfinder but as Blair, he's shown to be ambitious, if a bit frazzled and sometimes a bit of an absent-minded professor. But I also got a bit of an Emmett Brown vibe from Blair. More so teenage Emmett from Back To The Future: The Game in how while he believes in what he's doing, those above put his down as they see it as absurd but Blair just wants to follow his dreams. Now there are traces of Dreamfinder to be found within Blair but they haven't fully been realized yet as this story take place quite some time before he becomes the jovial and caring man that was seen on the ride.
Figment
He's Figment. I can't praise enough all well, Figment was written here. Though, I do take issue with how long it took for the greatest Disney dragon to show up but when he did, I was so happy because it just put the biggest smile on my face as I could just hear him talking in my head and Figment came alive for me like he does whenever I listen to One Little Spark.
Supporting Character
The Chairman
The Chairman is not a bad per se as he does have a lot on his plate and it's easy to see how he could get frustrated. And I do get why he would get angry with Blair over his silly inventions. The Chairman at best represents a person of higher power that doesn't understand the lovers, the dreamers, and
My Final Thoughts
While I do have issues with how long it takes to the story to get going as the beginning feels really slow, I understand as there is a lot of set up that needs to be taken care of in the first issue. And once Figment shows up, the story really does pick up and that is for me, when the story starts to get really good. Join next time as we continue our look at Figment's first comic outing as we look at the second issue.
No comments:
Post a Comment