Welcome to this week’s edition
of Bin Fodder! In this installment I’ll
be taking you into the world of Random
Encounter, created by writer/illustrator Nicc Balce. Random Encounter was produced by Viper
Comics a company that is
probably best known for releasing the very popular books Dead @ 17 and
Middle Man.
This four-part miniseries has
something for everyone. If you’re a
geeky fanboy who loves “hot” anime-style comic book ladies, if you’re a fan of
RPGs (Role Playing Games for you non-true nerds out there), or if you just
enjoy a quality comic with an interesting and engaging story chock full of
outrageous action and humor, then this is the book for you.
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| Courtesy of Viper Comics |
The high concept of Random Encounter is top notch. Take three ordinary people and put them in an
extraordinary situation with monsters and crazy action sequences. Throw in a heroine who has the innate ability
to fight said monsters but lacks the conscious memory of how she can or even
why she’s doing it. Mix it all together
with some RPG style overtones and you get an exceptional story.
Random
Encounter has four main
characters: Migo, the Kwik Mart clerk who turns out to be more than meets the
eye. Mica, who dates Migo and basically
lives at the Kwik Mart, who also turns out to have powers that are not entirely
known to her. Mona, plays the role of the
overbearing, controlling friend of Migo and Mica who takes photos and dreams of
glory. And Goggles Girl is the heroine
who has lost her memory after landing on the roof of the Kwik Mart.
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| Courtesy of Viper Comics |
The first issue starts out with
Migo, Mica and Mona doing what it would seem they are always doing, hanging out
at the Kwik Mart playing video games and watching television. But a random
encounter introduces Goggles Girl and an inky monster creature that attacks
her, Migo, and Mona as they try and help.
Acting on what turns out to be instinct Goggles Girl fights off and
eventually destroys the creature, but not before Migo is injured.
He’s rushed to the hospital
where, after coming around from his head injury, he is attacked by another inky
creature. This one ends up possessing
one of the nurses in order to continue its assault but Migo is able to fight it
off with the help of Gummy. The introduction
of Gummy brings along with it the detailed explanation of what is truly going
on in the story.
Gummy is a “Nede Harvester”,
and once again I find the internet lacking for any kind of proper definition of
what this is so I will do so here. Nede
is referred to as the “Tree of Life” and its leaves have the power to heal once
allowed to properly dry. The leaves can
also be used to create “Nede Cards” which, when placed inside an item, can add
special powers to said items. Gummy
explains all this to Migo along with informing him as to that the monsters are
called Bindlings and that they are released by Nede trees as a defense
mechanism when leaves have been stolen.
The Bindlings start out as level one monsters (the kind seen in the
first two issues) but then they can latch on to another tree or combine
together to upgrade themselves to become larger and more dangerous creatures
(as is seen in the last two issues).
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| Courtesy of Viper Comics |
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| Courtesy of Viper Comics |
Migo and Gummy return to the
Kwik Mart to find Goggles Girl tangling with one of the larger creatures while
Mona looks on taking photos of her skimpy outfit hoping to become rich and
famous from it. After Goggles Girl gets knocked out Gummy and Migo step in to
take on the monster. It’s during this
scene that the truth of Migo’s importance and ability comes out. He has powers, he was simply unaware of them,
but a kiss from Gummy brings them out.
After the kiss his right hand enlarges and his punches deal out a
massive amount of damage. In the end
Migo, Gummy and Goggles Girl work together to take down the creature and then
together with Mona and Mica leave town.
The story ends very open ended
leaving the possibility for future adventures but as of yet none have come to
fruition.
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| Courtesy of Viper Comics |
The first issue contains
interesting little notations in the form of videogame style directional-pad use
and buttons to push to achieve some of the action/fight moves that occur. But much the same as Dade Murphy’s
techno-visions in Hackers, these
notations just fade away, which was somewhat sad to see, because I thought it
to be a very cool concept and thought it added an interesting quality to the
story. It reminded me of how Blue Monday made notations throughout of recommended music for that part of
the issue. The fact that this little
part of the writing disappears is the only part of this book that I didn’t
like.
Overall Random Encounter has a great story with really cool art. It has enough of an anime/manga feel to draw
in that crowd of fans but not so much as to turn off those who don’t dig on
that style.
So,
my friends, go Bin Diving and find this and other gems!
Until
next time,
This
is Bin Fodder Guru Tim Blacksmith signing off!
