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‘Trekker Omnibus:’ Advance TPB Review

Ron Randall’s Trekker stars Mercy St. Clair, a government-sanctioned bounty hunter or “trekker,” in the grimy futuristic city of New Gelaph. Her targets are wanted fugitives and terrorists — wanted dead or alive, that is. Her assignments come from her police lieutenant uncle, Alex St. Clair. The New Gelaph force is a cesspool of corruption at many levels, which makes Mercy’s work a necessity.

Each issue in this omnibus features a new target and a new set of moral challenges for Mercy. Can she bring in a terrorist when she knows he battles against a corrupt government conspiracy? Can she stay alive on a foot chase through the outer desert wastelands? Can she partner with an opposing trekker? And, what mysteries surround her father? As the story progresses, the self-contained issues broaden into an over-arching tale.

Mercy St. Clair definitely involves the reader. She’s driven, she holds her own against the tough guys, and she dresses in appropriate fighting gear, a refreshing difference compared to other comic book heroines. She actually wears pants! This doesn’t mean that she doesn’t struggle with her role as a woman; she hesitates to define her romance with officer Paul Axle. The aspects of the personal story sound familiar to any fans of Buffy the Vampire Slayer or Alias, but Trekker predates them both. The peripheral characters are somewhat blandly archetypal: the informers, the bounties, and the cops blur together and make it foggy to remember who’s who.

New Gelaph is a fun playground for each story, a familiar metropolis of the future that is decadent and decrepit all at once. It has the noir taste of Blade Runner’s Los Angeles and Star Wars’ Coruscant. Some of the black-and-white artwork can be difficult to follow, because the complex layouts and inking better suit the color issues; however, the penciling shines with that classic comic look from the ’80s I always enjoy. Mercy’s off-world adventures also give Randall a chance to play with fun sci-fi space scapes.

 

Two and a half X-12 Explosive Projectiles out of Five

Jake Thomas, Fanbase Press Contributor

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