Tankers #2

Tankers #2

Bad Idea 2021

Written by Robert Vendetti

Illustrated by Juan Jose Ryp

Coloured by Andrew Dalhouse

Lettered by Dave Sharpe

The CEO of global energy conglomerate Greenleaf Oil has just discovered a terrifying secret: the planet only has a decade or less of petroleum left before it’s gone forever. But he has a plan to make sure his great-great grandchildren can continue to generate maximum shareholder value – and secure his own legacy in the process. Rather than develop a game-changing renewable energy source through the power of corporate innovation, Greenleaf has perfected the next best thing – time travel (duh) – so that a team of six field-rat contractors armed to the teeth in individually customized mech suits can go back to the Cretaceous Period, tweak the trajectory of the meteor that killed the dinosaurs, and give mankind another 500 millennia worth of oil reserves. What could go wrong? Only all of human history, of course – because when Greenleaf’s team of Tankers come home, they’ll discover that not only did the dinosaurs never die out, they’ve kept evolving for another 60 million years…and they’re more pissed off than ever.

I love the concept of this story and the way that this is being told. The story & plot development that we see through how the sequence of events unfold as well as how the reader learns information is presented exceptionally well. The character development that we see through the dialogue, the character development as well as how they act and react to the situations and circumstances which they encounter continues to flesh them out magnificently. The pacing is superb and as it takes us through the pages revealing more and more of the story it’s great getting caught up in the action we see.

With what we learn in this issue thanks to the layers within the story we begin to appreciate just how much depth, dimension and complexity there is in this. We see how doing one simple thing can rewrite the course of history and mess up the entire world in the process. I’m incredibly impressed with what we see here and how the events end up change how we perceive the story and the characters in it is sublime. How everything works together to create the story’s ebb & flow as well as how it moves the story forward is impeccably rendered.

Juan Jose Ryp is one of if not the best artist working today. What the man is capable of doing with his linework seems inhuman it’s so good and with the varying weights and techniques to be able to create this level & quality of detail work is simply mindbogglingly brilliant! The way we see backgrounds being utilised is brilliantly done as they enhance the moments and work within the composition of the panels to bring out the depth perception, sense of scale and the overall sense of size and scope to the story leave me chuffed to bits. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels shows a masters eye for storytelling. The colour work is equally as brilliant. The various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work show a master colourist at work. The creativity and imagination on display here is beyond incredible.

This series is a cautionary tale and showcases the butterfly effect in all its glory. With this incredible idea that stems from a place of greed and ease it’s a comedy of errors that keep them paying the price over and over again. Though what I want to see now is just far advanced a species can get over sixty five million years. The full ramification of that long of existence and how man managed to evolve alongside them and thrive to a point where there’s still some remnant of a civilisation that at this sage should really exist. While I know this is a limited series I’d love to really see it explored with all its infinite possibilities good and bad.

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I could read this for years and never get bored of the avenues and the attempts to fix what’s broken only to make things worse before eventually getting it right. This concept and its execution has been flawlessly rendered and the interiors leave you gobsmacked with the sheer audacity of it all.