GLOBAL FREQUENCY # 8
© 2003 Wildstorm Comics

Mania Grade: A
Issue: 8 (of 12)
Authors: Warren Ellis, Chris Sprouse, Karl Story, David Baron
Publisher: Wildstorm
Price: $2.95

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GLOBAL FREQUENCY # 8

Miranda Zero, head of the Global Frequency organization, has been captured by a white supremecist group and threatened with death if she does not give them access to the names of all her agents. They dare not risk letting her live longer than that, as her agents will probably find her within that hour. It's a race against time, with the entire Global Frequency at stake.

If HBO ever wants a hot property to make into a series once THE SOPRANOS goes off the air, GLOBAL FREQUENCY should be the one. Think about it - there are only twelve issues in this series, and the standard HBO season is usually thirteen episodes. I'm not suggesting they pad any of these issues to get an extra episode out of them - for one thing, Warren Ellis' writing is so tight that it would be nearly impossible - but it would be worth the effort to bring this series to the screen. GLOBAL FREQUENCY is the closest thing out there to a hit TV series in comics form. This issue in particular could be their "real-time" episode, for instance, an homage to series like 24, complete with ticking digital clock. I'm sure that, were anyone to gather a group of people to reenact this script or to count out a reasonable length of time for all the events contained therein to occur, they'd find Ellis has kept to the real-time formula far better even than 24 has. If someone were to tune in and see just this episode, this would be the one that would hook them - and I imagine those coming late to this series will feel the same way about this issue.

Part of that comes from the fact that it works so extremely well as a self-contained standalone issue - everything the new reader needs to follow the action and get involved with the suspense is here, without sacrificing good characterization as a result. Another of Ellis' strengths is his ability to establish a character's full personality in the briefest way possible, so that within a few panels we know that Mark Tran is just a tad bit overeager, that retired detective Winston Croft is the sort of calm and level-headed man perfect for the job, and that celebrity bodyguard Alice April is no one to be messed with. This issue also provides a perfect mini-character study of Miranda Zero - the scene in which she taunts her would-be torturer with examples of the real tortures she's endured in her life is positively chilling, but it reveals more about her character in two panels than most writers can reveal in several issues about one person.

I haven't even had a chance to praise Chris Sprouse and Karl Story's excellent, grittily realistic artwork or to talk about how any director working on a GLOBAL FREQUENCY television series would never need to plan any shots because the storyboards are right here - but then again, you'll be looking at it soon enough yourself, anyway. And if you aren't, then shame on you - you're missing out on one of the best comic series in recent memory. Don't wait for HBO.