Random Happenstance

Twenty zombie books on the shelves now, and this should be the best of them.


From Xombi #17, "Hidden Cities, Chapter 1: Prophecies" Written by John Rozum, art by J.J. Birch.

Even though it made some interesting forays into the Milestone universe, even when it was coming out a lot of people thought Xombi should have been a Vertigo comic. Mmmmaybe. Starting January 1994, it lasted 22 issues in a comics market that was starting to compress. Would it have done better at Vertigo? No one can say. The book was already bucking art trends (Birch draws a ton of weird stuff, but in a non-showy, anti-Image manner) and was a Mature Readers book in a line that hadn't had that before.

The title character, David Kim, never refers to himself as a 'Xombi' or a superhero. He was a research scientist in the then-nouveau field of nanotechnology: tiny, building machines, that could change a substance at the atomic level. Nearly killed during a bizarre theft of his research, he has his assistant inject him with the nanites to repair him, which they do, with unfortunate consequences. From there, the nanites don't leave his body, making him impossible to kill.

A friend of mine thought that was a terrible power, and he has a point: David wasn't more resistant to injury or invulnerable. He didn't even get claws or unbreakable bones out of the deal. It's a power that seems difficult to make dramatic or flashy for the covers: in his #0 issue, David gets chopped into hamburger, recovers. Even with a Walt Simonson cover, you couldn't put that on there.

For the rest of the series, David struggles with the consequences of his powers, and to escape from or control his emersion into the unseen world of magic and weirdness. An ongoing subplot that sadly never got to come to the forefront was David's fiance, who had been working in Europe up until the last issue, as David tried to find a way to explain what had happened to him. As his friend and mentor Rabbi Sinnowitz tells him, "There is no right way to explain it. Some ways are more wrong than others."

Sadly, even with accolades from Harlan Ellison and Alan Moore, and promo opportunities like 99-cent issues, Xombi faded just before the rest of Milestone. Then, the internet wasn't the clog-of-blogs that it is today; and I can't help wondering if it might have had a better chance if fans had been able to promote it online more. Check out the quarter bins: there may not be a ton of these issues, but they're a worthwhile read if you see them. For more Milestone info and highlights, check out Munson's Milestone Monday's. Or your local library, if they have a good selection of defunct 90's universes...