A trucker comes across a car accident in the middle of the night. A mysterious object in the road seems to have caused it. When he touches it, both he and the survivor of the accident are transported to… nowhere. But different. Filled with mindless naked putty people. Their mission? Transport mysterious object somewhere. What’s going onnnn!?
Phantom Road is a half-baked Twilight Zone-ish story, which is intriguing and not poorly written, but this first volume doesn’t do anything besides set the story up and introduce one puzzling element after another, without really telling a satisfying story. It’s also stretched out because it’s a series so, despite being a quick read, you don’t feel like you’re reading anything at all - just premise basically - so it’s like a comics equivalent of fast food. You’ve ingested a bunch of calories but you don’t feel like you’ve eaten anything either.
Lemire draws you into the mystery competently and Gabriel Walta’s art is as dependably solid as ever. The threats in the other realm though - the naked mindless putties/zombies - are dealt with quite effortlessly by Dom and Birdie, so… they’re not really threats. To the point where they may as well not be there.
The introduction of FBI Special Agent Theresa Weaver was a much-needed layer to the story though we’re watching her find out things we already know, which isn’t exciting. Until she starts looking into Billy Bear Truck Stops and then things get momentarily interesting - and even more befuddling.
I do want to find out what happens next but I get the impression that this is going to be one of those titles that gets collected into one big jumbo omnibus after it’s all done and that will be the book to read, rather than these bitty volumes. As it is, this first volume is barely an amuse-bouche - a fine set-up book but unsatisfying in not delivering anything more substantial, which you would reasonably expect from a complete book.
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