It opens with a man masturbating on a Juarez, Mexico rooftop and wraps up with a head-exploding punch; surprising then that the first word that popped into my head when I finished reading the inaugural Deus Ex comic is smart.
The first Deux Ex Human Revolution comic hits stands next week, dropping readers somewhere into the thick of the fiction for the upcoming video game of the same name.
The Robbie Morrison written and Trevor Hairsine drawn comic opens with a meaty rescue mission involving the kidnapped niece of a multinational, drug dealers and augmented good and bad guys. The hero, perhaps anti-hero, of both the comic and game is Adam Jensen.
Jensen, described in the comic as the recent recipient of extensive biological modification, appears to be a former member of SWAT and current security chief for Sarif Industries. And it's clear he is still strugging to deal with those extensive modifications.
The 23 pages or so of actual comic does an adept job of pulling readers through the story while peppering them with the bigger issues that are the obvious thrust of both the comic and game: The definition of humanity.
I don't want to give any more away here other than to say I was impressed with how deftly the comic handles the look of the near future of the world of Deus Ex and to urge fans of comics and this game to go out and buy it.
It's a worthy read.