Lion Forge Comics came out of the gate in 2011 at full speed. With leadership that loved comics and embraced and supported diverse creators, stories and audience, and very talented folks working for them at every level, they have it all going on in the right direction.
I had been told to keep my eye out for this particular book, and now that it has been collected in a graphic novel, I thought it time to buckle down and give it a good look.
Summit, Vol.1: The Long Way Home follows the story of Valerie “Val” Resnick-Baker, the only surviving member of a space mission to deflect an asteroid hurtling towards Earth, a mission which failed horribly. Also killed in the subsequent impact was Val’s girlfriend Kay. A year after the event, Val is not okay, even if Earth is slowly recovering, thanks to Lorena Payan, visionary CEO of Foresight Industries.
The story is told in non-linear segments, tracking back and forth from before the “event” to the present in which Val learns the whole truth about what happened and explores the powers the event left her with. She rediscovers old allies, makes new friends and finds out who not trust.
Val is a woman who was pair-bonded with another woman. There’s no reason to expect that her next lover, should she take one, will not be a woman. Val is a lesbian lead character and then the story happens. This is a refreshing take on the whole issue. Her sexuality is not a “thing. It’s not a plot complication or a climactic reveal, it’s mere a fact of her existence.
That her lover is dead is such an overplayed plot point that I almost feel a little bad for writer Amy Chu. I guessed she was straight, or she might have not chosen this really threadbare backstory to begin with. But I’ll give her and the rest of the team the benefit of the doubt that the story will involve some character development. Even Kate Delafield eventually moved on and found herself in love with someone new. Took ten years and a couple of novels, but it did happen.
The characters here are strong, the world of Summit is set loosely based around Foresight Industries’ Mexico City Headquarters. Summit is a solid work. The art by Jan Duursema and lettering and coloring are all exactly what one wants from a western-style comic book. The plot is not complicated (if anything it’s a tad predictable,), which makes Volume 1 a good place to begin from, and sets up what I hope will be a solid superhero narrative going forward.
Ratings:
Art – 7
Story – 7
Characters – 7, except for Fiona, who deserves an extra point or two
Service – 0
LGBTQ – 4 There’s no squeamishness, it remains to be seen if it’s relevant to Val’s future as it is to her past
Overall – 7
The cast of and staff working on the series look like the world we live in, which gives me hope that there is someone at Lion Forge who is queer as well and can keep this series from falling into all the plotholes of lesbian literature. If Val starts drinking, I’m going to write a cautionary letter, that’s all I’m sayin’.
Yuri Manga
