Writer: Jeff Parker
Artists: Ashish Padlekar, Sheetal Tanaji Patil (colors)
Publisher: Virgin Comics
The cover for Walk-In #4 displays the main character, Ian Dormouse, trussed up in a straight jacket. Don’t let this worry you; Ian only thinks he’s going insane. In this issue, though, Ian encounters the paranoid’s Holy Grail: actual, physical proof that someone is out to get him. His entire life may have been sidetracked by the madness he feels has been inflicted on him, so he’s not about to let this go.
It’s not surprising if you haven’t been reading Walk-In. It ran into the infamous issue #2 problem, where dealers, motivated by pre-shipping buzz, order the first issue, then completely forget about it next month. If this is the case with you, do yourself a favor and go order the first three issues and then sit down and enjoy this issue with those. However, if you’re the impatient type (I’m looking at you), here’s the story so far.
Ian Dormouse is a decent fellow who suffers from blackouts. Sometimes they last hours, sometimes weeks. Regardless, when he wakes up whatever friends he may have accumulated between blackouts want nothing to do with him and he must move on. He now has ended up in Moscow, where his blackouts have grown into full blown hallucinations of alien worlds and floating octopi. This, for whatever reasons, has attracted the attention of two freaky twins who have kidnapped him and are forcing him to sit under a giant fish. Fortunately, a stripper and a Russian bouncer are on their way to rescue him.
The preceding paragraph leaves out many, many details. Like I said, go read the first three issues. It’s worth it.
Issue #4 is by far the most action oriented book to date. There are fist-fights, car chases, firearms, violent hallucinations and the Russian police. It manages to bring all of this into the fray without sacrificing the two things that have made the book charming up until this point: a sense of humor and a slow cooking plot.
The humor is still there, particularly in the handling of the dialogue. A simple example of this occurs when the Russian bouncer, overhearing a conversation that resembles the third paragraph of this review, turns to his friends and says, “I think you kids…are on the drugs, yes?” Who could blame him for thinking so?
Best of all though, Walk-In doesn’t give in to the temptation to spoon feed the reader what is obviously a complex and ambitious plot. I could be wrong, but after having read the first four issues, I don’t think that Messrs. Stewart and Parker are just throwing things up on the board to see what sticks. The giant fish and alien cities seem like they could have real bona fide explanations, rather than just some story elements hastily strung together. If that’s the case, then the team behind Walk-In is taking the reader somewhere new and bizarre and letting us enjoy the journey.
Walk-In may be the best title out there that you aren’t reading. Pick it up.
If you liked this review, be sure to check out more of the author’s work at http://madbastard.hypersites.com.
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