Prepare for big concepts. Hourman is a synthetic machine colony from the year 85271 (Remember DC ONE MILLION?) with the power to travel through and control time. Powered partly by a reproduction of the Miraclo gene created by Rex Tyler (the Golden Age Hourman) and mainly by the "Rock of Ages", the Worlogog, Hourman is a cipher, alternately a chronal police-officer and standard superhero. At the dawn of this series, though, he's just one big android loser, as he's come to the end of the twentieth century in pursuit of that robotic Holy Grail which all science-fiction synthezoids strive for: humanity. But with role models like the Justice League and their one-time mascot Snapper Carr, you have to wonder...
My head hurts... As said above, prepare for big concepts. Tom Peyer writes HOURMAN to compare to the epic sweep of JLA, using hard science and theory as magic to stun the reader. However, as Mark Waid has demonstrated in his run on JLA, it's pretty damn hard to match up to the sheer bizarro-factor of Morrison's writing in this vein. Morrison supplies the bare minimum of detail about the science-- generally done in some kind of dramatic, non-sequitur-ish dialogue gasp from a character shortly before a major occurence-- but somehow the reader can always grasp it instantly. When Waid attempted the same in his four issues of JLA, the fluidity of Morrison just wasn't there, and it's missing here too-- when Snapper Carr suddenly displays clairvoyeurism and loses it just as suddenly, we can infer that it was caused by some kind of Hourman-related time bubble that we haven't seen yet, but there's no hook to confirm this. Not to say that HOURMAN is in any way poorly written-- even B-grade Morrison imitation can be good, and many of the concepts do slide off fluidly-- for example, Hourman relating to the League an entire conversation that hasn't happened yet (And the Leaguers reacting as if it had). Peyer definitely adds MORE than enough of his own excellent work to the series, such as...
The Supporting Cast (Or, "Baby You Can Drive My Carr") Every single character in the book is well-handled. When I first heard the news that the Obi-Wan to Hourman's Luke would be Snapper Carr (as a beatnik, no less), I groaned-- here's a chance for the writer to yank off some INCREDIBLY overblown Scooby-Doo hipster beatnik dialogue in the name of humor. But pleasantly, this is not so. Snapper does occasionally speak in jive, and it does get annoying, but it's not overdone or cloying. Peyer has also set up a great new status quo for him-- an ex-wife, a struggling writing career, and an auto repair business (Not to mention a cat named Starro). Each Leaguer also has an individual voice (Green Lantern is especially entertaining), and Hourman's encounter with Batman is perfectly handled.Visions Of The Future Rags Morales' art is extremely enjoyable. I've never been terribly impressed by his work, but something about HOURMAN just clicked with me... his character designs are imaginative, his backgrounds are never skimped on, and every panel is filled with movement. Sometimes they become too full, and the effect is cluttered, but more often then not they're just visually exciting. The inks and colors compliment the pencils perfectly, never overbearing or underwhelming.
Between VEXT and HOURMAN, DC seems to be marshalling its forces for another boom in excellent "offbeat" titles like the year-old genesis (and subsequent downfall) of CHASE, CREEPER, and CHRONOS. One can only hope they can stay around longer than those; I'm fascinated to see where HOURMAN ends up. 7.9 out of 10. R.I.Y.L.: JLA, DC One Million, Vext, '60s Justice League, Chronos, Starman, Creeper, Martian Manhunter."You're Lucas Carr. You create that noise with your hands when you're excited, so people call you Snapper." "Yeah, well, you should see my brother Spitter. They never wanted him in the League."
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