On the face of it Analog is a futuristic noir about your stereotypical private detective-type - trenchcoat, booze, clipped narration, dame troubles - who does shady stuff for shady types. That’d be ok by itself but Gerry Duggan tries to do more and ends up with a muddled mess of boring nonsense instead.
Our anti-hero is Jack McGinnis, a “Ledger Man”, which looks to mean that he delivers packages to mob-types but later on he acts as a hitman, private investigator and basically whatever else the plot needs him to be. Oh and he “destroyed the web” apparently even though it looks like it still very obviously exists? And he’s being blackmailed by “Aunt Sam” (the feminised version of “Uncle Sam” because PC) to do something with AI that’s inhabiting various robot animals…?
Er, yeah, it’s overcomplicated and silly to say the least. After that cracking opening scene in St Louis which had that unexpected repetition to it that made it stand out, things went downhill fast and never improved. I don’t know why half of the things in this book are happening and I don’t care enough to go back and re-read it to find out as I won’t be continuing with this series and I suspect the answer is bullshit anyway.
The world building is unconvincing, underwritten and shaky at best - apparently 2024 America is, sigh, a fascist state. There are, good lord, concentration camps, and Jack’s on-again-off-again wife/girlfriend/doesn’t matter is a hero for killing literal Nazis - so basically the far-left’s wet dream come true. There are underground speakeasies because I guess alcohol has become prohibited again and also illegal drinking dens are the best way to hide illegal immigrants… ? Duggan can write well occasionally but he’s wiffing it big style here.
I wasn’t that impressed with David O’Sullivan’s art. Oh, which brings me to the weirdest problem with this book: Jack starts off as a white guy and then, two issues in, his skin turns bright pink/purple for no reason! Whaaaaaat?! Combined with that chin and he looked like a less bulky Thanos cosplaying as a generic gumshoe! Jordie Bellaire’s a fine colourist but I have no idea what she was thinking there. It’s so unnecessarily distracting! And it’s not some printing error either as Jack’s in some scenes with others, like Aunt Sam, who’re white like he was at the start but he’s still pink/purple!
Analog’s a pile of pants - I wouldn’t recommend it. For a better futuristic post-internet-cloud-crash-crime-type comic, check out Brian K Vaughan and Marcos Martin’s The Private Eye instead.
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