Destination: Unknown

There are so many things to love about this new Omega the Unknown series by Jonathan Lethem and Farel Dalrymple that I sometimes don't know where to start. But for now, I'm going with this brief exchange between young Alex - he of the so-far-inexplicable link to superheroic-but-silent Omega, not to mention parents who turned out to be robots - and one of his new guardians, Clare Weiss, on the topic of Alex attending an inner city school in the midst of modern day New York:

Alex: "Is it academically superior, Miss Weiss?"

Clare: "Let's focus on the good news for now."

That sort of dialogue, that's both laugh out loud funny when you read it for the first time, and yet poignant in terms of what it foreshadows for poor, lost Alexander, showcases Lethem at his best.

Other highlights include Clare and Edie, the latter of whom has taken Alex into her own home after the hospital began making noises about the cost of his stay, trying to explain Sammy Sosa High School to an American teenager who's never even heard of baseball ("They named it for him before that whole steroid thing." "Named it for whom?" "Never mind.") and the outlandish Mink, who perhaps represents the more absurd nature of the Marvel Universe of men-in-tights. As he races to the scene of a battle, he stops long enough to provide the local news crew with a sound byte or two: "When in the course of human events, ask not what you can do for your country, blah blah blah blah blah blah. And you can quote me on that."

Lethem also introduces a new character in this second issue, that of a professor who receives an unexpected gift. A book called Robotics: What Comes Next arrives at his doorstep, after which he takes it to bed to read, stays up all night reading it, and can't put it down... literally! By morning, the book has attached itself to his chest, and by the next day is partially absorbed into his body! Yeah, that's pretty weird!

Another trick that Lethem's employing in this series is one that I've only ever seen Alan Moore do better in this medium: visual irony. While it's unlikely that anyone else will achieve the level of quality of the examples strewn throughout Watchmen, here the author deftly brings us instances of a conversation between two characters reflecting events occurring literally outside their window, as well as intersections of lives that have nothing in common (so far) but still manage to glance off of each other from time to time.

I enjoyed the first issue of this 10-part series, but I truly loved the second one. I'm sure not many comic fans are reading it, but I'm equally convinced that it's one of the best series right now. Jonathan Lethem simply writes at a higher level than most comic authors, and it shows. The big question for me remains, "Will he pay it all off in the end, or will some of it just end up being weirdness for weirdness' sake?" I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt for now, and we'll see what we see at the finish line!