UpRoar Comics Conundrum Issue 1 Review

Conundrum Issue 1 - an alternate steampunk 20th century where a great man called Professor Wilde debuts Wilde’s Wondrous World Fairs to the public with great acclaim. New discoveries, new civilisations, world changing inventions; things that will rocket the world into the 20th century. Wilde is killed by the mass-murderer named the Zener Killer, who looks fantastic, setting his son Thomas onto a mission to find the truth about the killings. Thomas has his heart set on reopening the Fair that his father started, but he has a long way to go before he'll be the man his father was, the man he needs to be in order to reopen the fair.

The first eight pages of the issue is the prologue and it's a good way to kick this comic off. Some of the visualisations are stunning and really help build up the intrigue to the story premise, and if you're wanting to build up a villain then it's good to show them early as well as some of their power. There's also a slight introduction into the Ubermensch, the potential hero of the series, born out of surviving an atomic bomb. We also get a bit of the future where the young Thomas Wilde isn't so young anymore and is calling out the Ubermensch as a charlatan, a fraud - he knows he's not a God and can prove it with just one question. What is that question? That's likely something that we won't know for a while.

After the prologue, the rest of the issue is split into 3 stories. The first covering Thomas Wilde where he's dealing with his fathers death and wanting desperately to follow in his footsteps in keeping the Wilde's Wondrous World Fairs open. Unfortunately for Thomas, his fathers old friend, and lawyer, tells him that no only is there not enough money to reopen the fair, but that no one in the world is like Professor Wilde and only he could run a fair like this. When we jump forward in time to Thomas as a man, looking the same age as in the prologue, we see that he has a friend that is a talking monkey, one of the wonders from Wilde's fairs.

We then get Zener, the villain of the series. This section is based in Rome and starts with the crowd outside of The Vatican demanding that the Ubermensch is investigated by the church. Zener meets a cardinal in a confession booth and admits to five murders so far as well as claiming to be the herald of the Ubermensch, but then proceeds to give us an insight into why he's killing selected people. "I have been blessed... to usher in this new age of faith... yet cursed with horrid visions of the new messiah's death... because I see how things could come to pass! How doubting men could murder the one who will save us! I will not let these events occur! I shall do my upmost for him... because I believe...". When the cardinal tries to leave he comes face to face with Zener and realised exactly who he's just been talking to. Instead of being killed like you'd expect, the cardinal is convinced to join Zener in his quest along with questioning whether Zener is the herald of the Ubermensch or the harbinger of armageddon.

The third and final act is all centered on the Ubermensch. Set in Berlin in 1914, the act starts of in The House of Power where the Ubermensch is being interviewed and we learn that the Ubermensch has no recollection of his life before the atomic blast. He started as a hero saving 12 people during the blast; how these 12 people survived is not known at the point, but could Zener be one of the 12? Apparently the rest of the survivors has no side effects, not even a scar. So Zener might not be, but then how did he get his powers? How the 12 people survived without a scratch from an atomic blast, and how Zener got his powers are things that will need to be explained later in the series.

The Ubermensch is put in a position where Luthor, one of the people saved, clearly doesn't think that it's a good idea for the Ubermensch to be talking to the reporter, Bruno, saying that if they work with a reporter then people will surely think that they're frauds. Ubermensch though shows some strength and isn't swayed from what he thinks is right. He likes how Luthor wants to spread the word about him, and he trusts Luthor, whilst opening admitting to Bruno's face that he doesn't trust him, but he will let him spread the word about him since Luthor and Bruno both have good qualities. He will only need one of them to help him move forward though, and he won't make that decision yet. It's unclear whether the Ubermensch actually wants people to believe that he is a God since he's not entirely sure of it himself, but we do know for certain that he wants to convince people that he's not a fraud.

It's an interesting way to tell the story and it's quite refreshing. It could drag the story on a bit, but it'd be nice to see this format continue throughout the series. It'll be interesting to see what powers the Ubermensch has other than being able to fly and being bullet proof. And does he know about Zener? Does he approve of him? With Zener on his way to meet the Ubermensch, maybe we'll find out in the next issue. In all, this is a solid comic and introduces the readers to the main characters in a different and well organised manner. I look forward to seeing where it goes from here.

You can pick Conundrum issue one up from UpRoar Comics website - Conundrum Issue One.