Customer Reviews

Hotwire: Requiem For The Dead

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4 star:		(1)
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Once you get past the fact that our protagonist is an unnaturally attractive, pixie-faced woman with the unlikely name "Hotwire," Requiem for the Dead is an innovative, beautifully drawn story with a lot of neat sci-fi stuff to say.

In one of the not-too-distant dystopian futures that Warren Ellis loves to write and rewrite for every one of his visions, nonliving souls cloud the streets in a blue mist, generally causing a ruckus. Because this is such a unique problem, it's up to a specialized force to deal with the unquiet undead and all of the strangeness that they are capable of. When the threat becomes organized and is imminently more serious, Alice Hotwire dives headfirst into a fairly typical, but still exciting, adventure through the ghost underground, fancy anti-ghost equipment blazing.

Ellis is a complex writer, so it's important to note that he's credited on this volume only because he and Steve Pugh originated the idea for this story together before Ellis eventually abandoned it for other projects. Pugh, who is primarily an illustrator, does a truly excellent job of simplifying Ellis's potentially complicated ideas into a readable, enjoyable story with enough signature creepy elements and monsters to keep it exciting. If you're picking this up because it has the Ellis name on it, you shouldn't expect an Ellis-penned tale, but you'll likely be very pleased with what you do get.

Pugh's artwork transcends the medium he employs, whatever that might be at the time. It's actually very difficult to tell if he's painting digitally, with acrylics and watercolors, or if he employs an amazing combination of all of the above. It can sometimes be distracting to read a comic that has overly complex or overproduced artwork, so it's easy to leap to the conclusion that this is all style and no substance just by browsing through the pages. Ultimately, the realistic (and often surrealistic) artwork serves the story perfectly. Pugh's use of realistic humans is especially impressive, as his work is perfectly consistent from panel to panel and wonderfully expressive.

The occasionally saucy heroine, despite being obviously attractive, never falls into the trap of being sexualized, as far too many id-driven comics do. Sure, she tosses out a few choice words of profanity, but that's only because she's all business. If a giant snake ghost with a human skull for a face was about to chomp on you, I don't think you'd be concerned with the elegance of your vocabulary either.

The end of this volume promises a deeper exploration into the weird half-ghost city of Hotwire, and I honestly can't wait to see what happens next.
-- Collin David

I've only discovered the two Trade Paperbacks so far, and only read the first. The main character Alice is awesome, the tech is awesome and the supernatural element of the 'Blue-Lights' or ghosts is clever and original. Looking forward to volume two. It's like part 50's detective novel, part CSI, part 'Rainbow's End' and a little 'Ghost busters'

Once you get past the fact that our protagonist is an unnaturally attractive, pixie-faced woman with the unlikely name "Hotwire," Requiem for the Dead is an innovative, beautifully drawn story with a lot of neat sci-fi stuff to say.

If you're like me and you've never seen the artwork of Steve Pugh before then this comic book will truly leave you speechless after you've opened to the first page. The images are painted and then digitally photographed before the word balloons get placed onto their appropriate areas, but even if this entire four-issue series was completely silent I would still highly recommend this book for its imagery alone. The story follows a Detective Exorcist named Alice Hotwire as she travels through a futuristic city (I think it's supposed to be London but no one ever comes right out and names the place) as she investigates a mysterious surge in the activity of deadly "blue-lights" which is what ghosts are called in the "Hotwire" comic book series. You see, thanks to more than one billion internet connections creating a thin fog of electrically charged particles, the life force that resides inside of a person's body is unable to rest in peace after death, so it wanders the world aimlessly until someone or something allows it to briefly become attached. That's how things are supposed to work, but when the rules of death and reanimation are thrown out the window, all hell breaks loose and it's up to Alice along with her partner Mobley to figure out why so many souls aren't leaving the living alone. The plot is easy to follow, the action is plentiful so you won't have a chance to get bored wen you read this, and there's also some bonus material at the end including a really nice interview with the writer/artist Steve Pugh. Fans of Warren Ellis won't be disappointed when they buy this book, he wrote the original story with Steve Pugh many years ago and it's finally been allowed to see the light of day since Mr. Pugh maintained direct creator control over this character and the world she inhabits. I can't single out a specific page or image that made me love this book, you'll just have to buy it for yourself and see what makes it so great. And the really great news is that there will be a second book coming out very soon!