Peter Milligan/C.P. Smith
2008/2009
Wildstorm/DC Comics
Volumes 1 and 2 of THE PROGRAMME collect the 12 issue comic miniseries of the same name. Peter Galligan, comics scribe extraordinaire, has gone back in history and made a few little changes and tweaks, adding some very interesting elements to the cold war and the path followed by the US and USSR. In this scenario at the end of WWII, like in the real world, scientists from Germany were scooped up by the winners and put to work. The US had a super soldier project in the works with two attempts, both of which either failed or were dismissed. The Russians had better luck, but politics being what they were something bad happened and Stalin screwed with the one man who had control after a drunken insult. Fast forward to modern day and things are much different. The Russians are no longer what they were and the scientist in charge gets out of a gulag and reactivates his soldiers in order to once and for all show the western powers the error of their ways. The American versions are brought on line and the results are not what they were hoping for. What ensues is a wild trip of politics, espionage and conspiracy that is high entertainment.
Milligan does a wonderful job of using enough real world scenarios to make this all too believable. What his characters do is all too human and in his writing he gives a nice insight into society and the world we live in. And I am now a huge fan of the art of C.P. Smith. Combined with the color work of Jonny Rench he delivers a snapshot by snapshot view of the action that shows all the detail you need without bogging it down without too much detail, if that makes sense. This is stylistically a masterpiece. These two books grabbed me by the throat and wouldn’t let go.
