Clear #2: Cruise Control

Nostalgia is a powerful force that pop culture always seems to be in conflict with. Every attempt to glorify what came before is met with equal works looking to revise the way things were, and shine a light on what it was. In Clear #2, written by Scott Snyder with art and colors by Francis Manapul, it’s become clear (pardon the reference) that it’s not only the past but also the future that needs to be examined. Clear is a series focused on the future, so it’s fascinating how Snyder and Manapul decide to approach themes and ideas of the past. 

Snyder plots a stronger sophomore issue that flows perfectly through exposition and action, giving a greater context for a future that people can’t be bothered with experiencing. It also reveals the backstory for the protagonist Dan, still presenting the archetypal noir hero with a tragic war story, but modernizing, or in this instance, post-modernizing. It’s a perfect example of how Snyder threads the needle between cliché and originality, taking those genre tropes and twisting them into something new but familiar. There’s a distinct trust in the way that Snyder allows Manapul to illustrate various sections of exposition. In lesser hands, the exposition could feel forced or dull, but when Snyder’s prose writing mixed with Manapul’s distinct style, it becomes the perfect alchemy of context and flow. 

Manapul’s art is still perfect in this issue, allowing the creator to stretch and fill in ways his superhero books never felt. It might be from a wider schedule, or just Manapul showing true mastery of his craft, but this book is a contender for best of the year on the quality of its art alone. The standout panels from this book are not the seedy apartment fight that could be pulled straight from the frame of a Blade Runner film or the bombastic military operations that open the book. It’s how Manapul renders a cherry tree amid a massive high-tech building, showing how gorgeous a piece of the natural world is in this society of constructed images. Manapul follows this beautifully rendered cherry tree with two pages of veils (the technological achievement that allows anyone to see the world however they want) and contrasts the various styles with the long and flowing branches of the tree. It stands firm, layered in front of the veils in the image, as though it is anchored in reality, and apart from the various constructed worlds.

The color is a perfect match for the revelation that is Manapul’s art, matching the deep neons associated with neo-noirs and cyberpunk future, while also showing a complete mastery of lighting in everything from magic hours in the Pacific to the humming lights of various technologies. The way Manapul incorporates various, competing sources of light through his color helps to delineate the real world from the veils and always draws focus to what is important in the panel. That same two-page sequence set against the cherry tree is a perfect microcosm of that approach to color, giving the tree’s pink blossoms and greyish-green branches a more consistent and solid appearance, compared to the softer, more watercolor-esque images in various veils of people in the facility.