posted 09-24-2001 02:36 AM               

The Foot Soldiers is an interesting, well-drawn superhero/science fiction comic with real character depth and an intriguing plot. While I was reading it, though, I couldn't shake the notion that Jim Krueger may have been better off writing this as a prose novel, where he could make more extensive use of his talents for narration and internal dialogue. That reservation aside, Krueger's got an interesting story to tell here, and if he wants to tell it in comics, I'll be along for the ride.

In a dystopian future, an unnamed city suffers under the rule of the Bio-Technic Law (BTL); most of those not under its control are illiterate, poorly fed, and on the run from mechanized soldiers nicknamed Beetles. A mysterious old man gathers three youths together and shows them the graveyard of the city's lost heroes. Two find pairs of boots that are equipped with enhanced abilities, and adopt the nicknames of Johnny Stomp and the Second Story Kid. (Johnny jumps and kicks with increased power, Story has some very elevated shoes.) The third, a blind and crippled beggar, stumbles upon a mummified creature whose rags possess healing abilities - as long as he wears them, Rags can see and move with ease. They adopt the name The Foot Soldiers, and begin to fight the Beetles and try to inspire their fellow residents.

It's a fairly standard coming-of-age/hero's-quest idea, but Krueger makes it work by making the characters multi-dimensional; they all have faults, they're not quite sure what heroism is about, they don't always make smart decisions. Story starts a relationship with one of the Beetles that could be redemptive, but could just as easily compromise the team - as it does a few times in this story. The effect of the Foot Soldiers on the other previously-helpless free residents of the city is an important element of the story; the Soldiers give people hope, but they also change the old order of things, which scares some people. And there are plenty of mysteries left hanging, including the motivations of the old man and the identity of the mummy from whom Rags took his goods. Text pieces between each chapter identify the mummy as Mr. Lion, and establish that He Is Not a Nice Person, but not much else.

As I said at the beginning, it's those text pieces I found most compelling, and that's no knock on Mike Oeming's art. It's different from the style Oeming uses these days on books like Powers, a little less inspired by current animation, but it's no less effective, especially on facial expressions. But the text pieces have a certain sense of dread about them, a palpable sadness; Story (the narrator) seems weighed down by failure and despair in a way that doesn't quite come through in the pages of the main story. These text pieces add a layer of complexity that the comics chapters don't quite have. I hope that in future volumes Krueger works those elements into the story and starts paying off the hints he's dropping here. If he does, and I have to say I have no reason to assume that he won't, Foot Soldiers will turn out to be a comics saga well worth reading.