By Sam Christopher
Yes, ladies and gentlemen, eternal agitator Harlan Ellison returns to comics this week with a four-part mini for IDW. Harlan Ellison’s Phoenix Without Ashes #1 begins the story of Devon, an outsider who only seeks the truth… and the love of a beautiful young woman named Rachel. The year is 2785 and we are shown what appears to be a human colony world run by the pseudo-Amish. Marriages among the small populace are set up from birth by “the Creator”, which appears to be a small computer interface the leading citizen, Elder Micah, accesses and relies on to keep the people in line. Our young man Devon has fallen in love with a girl set to marry another and finds that his love for her will not allow him to keep silent. He is, of course, censured and banished and punished and… you get the idea. All of this before Devon ends up on the run from a cadre of torch-carrying townspeople after sneaking into the rectory at night and discovering that, as usual, someone in government has their thumb planted squarely on the scales of justice.
Harlan fan or not, this is something that really should be read. I know that Ellison’s original story idea for the old tv series The Starlost was titled “Phoenix Without Ashes” but since I’ve never had the opportunity to catch any of that series I can’t really say how closely this resembles that. Given HE’s proclivities, however, and his reported disdain for what “the suits” did with The Starlost, it wouldn’t be any surprise to find that this is Ellison’s own uncensored version of that story. That would be cool with me, as it might serve as the jumping off point for a set of series maybe, set in the universe we are shown here. We can only hope a writer of this talent continues to provide us great stories and illumination of the human condition for many years to come.
Oh, and if I might share a word about Alan Robinson’s artwork on this book that word would be: Perfect!
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