ICYMI: Duo #3-4: Twofold Trouble

There may be trouble in the mind palace.

One of the main problems that couples have when they first start living together is getting used to the way that the other tends to live or keep tidy. Part of the growth of said relationship is accepting your partner’s flaws and trying to make it work between both parties – now multiply that by ten when you’re literally inside the mind and can occupy the body of the one you love, then the real problems begin to present themselves even faster. That’s what David and Kelly are going through in these two issues.

What Greg Pak is doing here is contrasting both David and Kelly’s nature in regards to how they use the power of their nanobots; David thus far has been shown to be a bit more reserved in how he uses his powers, tending to wait and acting more defensively when fights happen or when information needs to be gathered, Kelly, on the other hand, is more aggressive, seeking out the people who tried to kill them and eventually almost siding with them when they reveal that they’ve been trying to stop the spread of immortality because human nature would cause the world to be destroyed with overconsumption.

At the end of the second issue, readers were introduced to the Immutables, beings who have somehow achieved immortality and have been on the Earth for several centuries, one of whom includes Dr. Chung, the man who ordered the assassination of David and Kelly. Issue three slightly expands on them and their mission while issue four shows us their opposing faction in Tinker Technologies run by Emris Tinker, an Engineer CEO who wants to give David and Kelly’s nanotech to the masses. This creates an interesting conundrum as Tinker believes what he is doing is for the greater good, but the Immutables also believe the same. I believe the general idea is that Kelly and David themselves will either split up and join the factions that best represent their beliefs or, they’ll overcome their own problems and take down both groups to both mitigate the possibility of immortality while still vastly helping humanity through the curing of diseases.

Khoi Pham’s art is absolutely fantastic in both of these issues. Issue three acts mostly as set up, giving us lots of character interactions full of varied expressions and uses of body language with the occasional bit of action. Since Kelly and David are starting to see cracks in their situation, their loving smiles are replaced with continual looks of concern and disappointment. When David expresses to his and Kelly’s mutual friend, Henry, that he wants to help build her a new body, she is almost furious and Pham makes sure to show Kelly’s bewilderment and fury at the very idea of becoming completely a robot. This sort of tension and anger is also best shown when Kelly, now in control of David’s body, goes to meet the Immutables and their tea time is made tense through tight body language, uneasy facial expressions and close up shots on various character faces. It feels uncomfortable which echoes David’s own feelings about meeting these people. 

Issue four, however, is quite the opposite. Making use of multiple wide angle shots, Pham’s crisp lines give the action packed nature of the issue a cinematic feel. Each panel feels dynamic and frantic with high action set pieces, like the Tinker robots swarming the Immutables office and one of them, Morien, stabbing Kelly through the heart so that the rest of them could get away. It’s a sudden and shocking moment that Pham conveys through one amazing looking splash page and the subsequent panels.

Scott Hanna’s inks and Chris Sotomayor’s colors also work in tandem to further uplift the awesome linework. Hanna does his best to give each line a ton of definition and makes sure that each shadow adds depth to the backgrounds and clothing. It’s masterful how he’s able to turn even the wispy lines of the Mindscape in the most threatening background detail because of how dark and threatening they appear.

Sotomayor does an excellent job of making the book feel alive by using a variety of colors throughout. The Immutables look as they should, like a variety of people from different time periods all acting together as a group; a colonial man dressed in blue, a Chinese seeming woman dressed in green and brown, a black warrior dressed in silver and red and Chung himself garbed in brown as he’s just a normal business man. It shows the varied natures and backgrounds that each of these people come from vs the monotone gray that Tinker’s robots display as they’re made to be lifeless.

The backgrounds, as I mentioned in the last review, are very well done and are some of the best things to look at in the book thanks to Sotomayor’s coloring. Between the beautiful pink and blue haze of some of the afternoon skies and the ethereal blues and greens of the Immutables office, there’s a lot of the book that feels mystical and draws one into the possibly magical nature of the villains. Their office doesn’t feel real due to the almost watercolor looks of their office windows thanks to Sotomayor’s techniques and attention to detail. 

The Mindscape serves as the biggest highlight as the bright pink walls, contrasted with the ever encroaching shadow of David’s mind, easily make the experience that much more immersive. We feel like we’re inside their head and the coloring furthers that feeling by being vastly different to the real world scenes by giving David and Kelly’s Mindscape costumes a shiny look with a gradient that isn’t as prevalent in other pages. 

Finally, Janice Chiang’s lettering is absolutely fantastic. Every word bubble is excellently placed, giving scenes room to breathe and allowing the art to still be the main focus. Her variety of balloons is also very effective at capturing the differences between characters, such as the yellow word balloons for David and the light blue balloons for Kelly. She also makes excellent use of sound effects as they often stretch across panels and help to give the book background noise to follow the violence.