Ethan enters prison, and his first day is every bit as harrowing as you might expect.
What I find interesting about his character is that he's a kid who's been bullied all his life. The set-up in the first issue is that his friend is a geek who has been picked on, and Ethan too has been bullied due to his short stature. As a result, the bullying he endures on the bus ride to the penitentiary, and to a certain extent on that first day, is nothing to him, and he reacts to it the same way he reacted to bullying at school. The problem is that his reactions might well get him killed in prison.
Though there was a chance he'd get killed in school by a shooter, if the way the story begins is anything to go by. And, speaking as someone who was bullied for most of school, it can begin to feel like a prison. I think there's some really interesting parallels to be explored here.
The weird energy being makes an appearance at the end of today's comic. I'm not sure if it's subconsciously controlled by Ethan or if it has more of an independent, Negative Man-vibe to it. Regardless, if Ethan's sleeping expression is anything to go by, there's some sort of psychic and emotional connection between the two.
Once again, just let me laud Steve Gerber's writing. At no point do any of the characters feel wooden, nor does their dialogue come off as expository or unnecessary. I have to assume that Gerber never spent any time in a penitentiary like the one in the comic, but he seems to have a good feel for not only the ways in which people interact there, but also the oppressive, claustrophobic atmosphere of the institution itself.
More to follow.
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