Obscure Comic of the Month is a column where I take a look at a comic or series that hasn't really been talked about. This covers independent comics, zines, weird spin-offs, webcomics and more.
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The Gatecrashers: A Night of Gatecrashing Book Two by Zachary Mortensen and Sutu – Ghost Robot 2016
Mild Spoilers
We last covered Zachary Mortensen's The Gatecrashers during my previous iteration of this column. I was impressed by his intricate cyberpunk adventure story, and found myself drawn in to the world, eager to see where the story was set to go. With Book Two, however, it would appear I'd have to wait a little longer to get there.
Rather than continuing the plot set up in Book One, the clandestine mystery Hex Spencer had found herself caught up in, Book Two instead jumps back to an earlier point in her life, to cover a period where Hex was just starting out as a Gatecrasher and still had one foot in a life of poverty and crime.
Why Mortensen chose to go in this direction I'm not too sure. Especially since the last issue of Book One seemed to be heading in such a definitive direction. I suspect that, given that the world of independent comics can be a flighty and precarious one, Book Two was intended to be a somewhat soft reboot. A brand new story that could appeal to new readers who had maybe missed their chance of catching Book One, with the intent to return to the main plot once a larger readership had developed.
Either way, this leaves us to formulate an opinion of Book Two on its own merits. Despite sharing Its protagonist and world, the pace of Book Two is very different, showing us a less responsible and more cynical version of Hex before she had taken a more principled direction with her life. The plot concerns the retrieval and delivery of a suitcase full of eyeballs, while tracing its journey to and from the black market. Book Two deals with a more morally compromised Hex, who has yet to decide how selfish she wants to be with her life.
Despite the brief change of direction, completely new secondary cast of characters, antagonists and a protagonist with a much different feel to the way she had been seen previously, Mortensen's writing is still as strong as ever, and it's clear he has a strong sense of place and a good connection to this fictional world. Even though I had initial reservations over the changing direction of the story, the writing drew me in straight away and even though the plot of Book One was on standby I was still eager to see the development of this new prequel-esque story.
Like the previous book Sutu's art is a wonderful fit for the plot and world, giving us another look at this vibrant and colourful cyberpunk city which for the most part takes place across the daytime this time around . Mortensen's writing and Sutu's art work fit together hand in glove, which much like the previous book delivers a setting with a sense of real place and identity.
It's now been a few years since The Gatecrashers has been around but, its story of walled-off residential districts and an almost vigilante scale attitude towards healthcare leaves the story feeling more relevant than ever in 2022 . I only hope that Mortensen continues the series. As the current day begins to more and more resemble the cyberpunk dystopias of the past, it falls to a new generation of writers and artists to depict our era through the lens of satire and allegory.
After two strong volumes I feel Mortensen and Sutu are well prepared for the challenge.
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Jack Harvey 2022. The Gatecrashers (c) 2016 Zachary Mortensen and Sutu. Images used under Fair Use.
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