The Warning #9 // Review
An alien invasion story makes a turn for the intriguingly dramatic as Edward Laroche’s The Warning reaches its ninth issue. An amped-up super soldier acts as a decoy on the back of a motorcycle as missiles are fired at the towering E.T. Things become complicated as it becomes apparent that both the invaders and the invaded face a common threat and shared mysteries. Writer/artist Laroche is aided in his story once again by colorist Brad Simpson. Time becomes a crucial point in the narrative as Larcohe's voluminous gaze into a very brief series of encounters continues to wind its way towards its inevitable conclusion.
Army super-soldier Jackknife races around the giant red demon alien on a motorcycle. He's calling-in missiles from a support crew. If he can survive the battle, the earth is far from okay. There's a couple of invading E.T.'s who are rather surprised to see that the inhabitants of the earth look a lot like them. It's a bit of an academic mystery, though. The power core of a large crashed alien space craft is about to blow, and the defending earth personnel have no idea how to avert disaster. The E.T.'s might be able to avert disaster, but they're being attacked by a very efficient U.S. military.
Laroche's story clears through some initial silliness in previous issues to amp-up the tension in this ninth issue. The tension between imperiled human forces and the alien invaders gets particularly interesting. As the E.T.'s are surprised to find what they're up against, and they have come to share the danger of this impending detonation. The invaders know the downed craft as a library. The earth forces have NO idea what the hell it is. Mysteries out beyond the action make for a thoroughly interesting chapter in Laroche's series.
As an artist, Laroche has a very sharp sense for the dramatic. He covers the angles of military engagement in a style that jumps from perspective to perspective with sharp intensity. Early on in the issue, a panel of the massive red alien shooting away after Jackknife on his bike is followed by a close-up of Jacknife's determined face. The next panel is a distance shot of a couple of missiles launched. It's all tied together with minimal narration and dialogue, but it's just enough to keep the action coherent. Simpson's colors lock-in and amplify the drama with the sharp radiance of energy arcs against the night sky. The colors embellishing Laroche's art cast just the right light on it all to maximize the drama.
The greater unity of Laroche's pacing begins to become a bit more apparent with this ninth issue. Conceived as a complete story, the overall plot structure is revealing itself. The Warning feels more like a unified project than a serialized piece of fiction. The brief, little tachistoscopic assault of 33 pages per month feels weirdly percussive. It'll be interesting to look back over it all once the final issue is out. For now, readers are only getting little snapshots from the hell of war on another world. It's fun, but it can be frustrating.
