Punk Rock Jesus #1

by Sean Murphy

Here is one comic that ended up being nothing like what I expected (and surpassed all of those expectations).  When I know that I'm going to buy a comic, and a comic by Sean Murphy is something I'm going to buy, I don't read solicitations, and I don't look at preview pages, short of just glancing at the art.  I prefer to be surprised, and to enter the project only with the expectations raised by the creators' previous work.  Still, you can't help but have preconceived notions, and there's nothing about the cover to this first issue that told me this would be a story about cloning, reality TV, and the IRA.

When this comic opens, it's twenty-five years ago (well, twenty-five years ago from the standpoint of 2019), and young Thomas McKael is having a nice meal with his family.  Suddenly, there are people outside the house, there's some shooting, and Thomas is stuffed in a closet with a gun, and told to shoot at anyone who tries to open the door.  This night ends with both his parents dead.

We then jump up twenty-five years, to learn that a corporation called Ophis has arranged to have DNA belonging to Jesus Christ (taken from the Shroud of Turin) cloned, and to inseminate a woman (a virgin, naturally) so that she can give birth to a new Christ.  This is the basis of their new reality TV show, of course.  They've hired a gifted scientist who is working on fixing the world's ecological problems to take care of this for them, but they've also interfered with her work, insisting that she change the messiah's DNA to give him blue eyes, bringing his appearance into line with their childhood illustrated bibles.

Thomas McKael shows up as the head of security for Ophis, who know about his checkered past as an IRA terrorist and wanted man.  There is a level of brutality to this group, best shown when the woman chosen to play Mary also gives birth to an unexpected female twin.

Murphy's previous solo work, Off-Road, was more of a light comedy and so I didn't expect this to be such a serious science-fiction story, but I welcome it.  I also welcome Vertigo's decision to publish this in black and white.  Part of me suspects that it could just be a cost-saving move, but it works well with Murphy's detailed art.  This book is not at all what I expected, but I'm very pleased with what I'm seeing, and I'm definitely sticking with it.