Review: Threshold #1
The science fiction anthology has a long history in serial format, whether The Twilight Zone on TV, or E.C.’s Weird Fantasy. Threshold is a new science fiction anthology title from DC Comics. The first issue includes “The Hunted,” a dystopian fable about the planet Tolerance where political criminals are hunted to the death in a reality TV show, and “Nine Tenths of the Law,” which is a character study of Larfleeze the Orange Lantern.
“The Hunted,” by Keith Giffen and Tom Raney, even imitates the form of a TV show, with two full-page fictional commercials, and a four act story structure. In the first act, citizens of Tolerance, greedy for bounty, pursue Green Lantern Jediah Caul, condemned to be the new star of The Hunted. Ember, another unwilling star, assists him in his escape and tells him that the hunted are getting organized. In act two, we are introduced to two more of the stars: after stealing provisions, Pamiera Syn, aka Stealth, returns to the shed she’s squatting in to find it’s been broken into by Ric Starr. Starr, a former space ranger, tells her that he is through with running. Act three is set in a producer’s suite, whose tentacles are being sprayed and buffed in a scene that is part mani, part pedi. In a video conference with his staff, we learn that there is a ringer this season: a hunter within the ranks of the hunted will quickly assassinate the Green Lantern and thin out the cast. Act four returns to Pam & Ric, who reveals that he only located her by being just ahead of a posse that in the final page, surrounds her hidey-hole. All in all, breathless stuff.
In “Nine Tenths of the Law,” by Keith Giffen and Scott Kolins, Orange Lantern Larfleeze has just abducted Stargrave to be his biographer. Larfleeze dictates a life in brief, and then admits that it is a lie, because “Knowledge is Power! No one must ever hold power over Larfleeze!” After establishing himself as an unreliable narrator, the lord of avarice receives a transmission that refers to another Orange Lantern. Since Larfleeze allows no other to share his power, he flies off to deal with the upstart only to find out that the news report was a hoax, and returns to find that his orange lantern power battery and hoard have been stolen.
Threshold boasts well written pieces. “The Hunted” is also fairly unique in that it skips past all the mimetic truths (whether life imitates art, or art imitates life) to art imitating television, and it finds a living, breathing setting by doing so.
Whether these stories become ongoing serials, or end in a few months to be succeeded by other tales, we are in for a grand adventure. As DC has been hard pressed since the seventies to keep in publication both science fiction and anthology titles, this one already has two strikes against it. You should go out and buy it immediately while you still can.