Making Superman into an American threat was always such an obvious choice. From Red Son to the recent Brightburn, various takes on an alien with god-like superpowers turning evil was always going to titillate readers, and the newest issue of Wyrd dives right into that twisted mythos. Obviously, Dark Horse Comics doesn’t own the rights to Supes, but similar enough characteristics and locations allow for the casual reader to immediately draw the comparison. Writer Curt Pires and artist Antonio Fuso have crafted a tale of a paranormal fixer, Pitor Wyrd, who works for the US government, handling unusual situations. With colors from Stefano Simeone and lettering by Micah Myers, this is a grim story about a man who seemingly can’t die, how his longevity came to be, how he uses his powers for good, evil, and everything in between, and how he’s used to achieving dubious goals set forth by his handlers.
Picking a fight you can’t win sucks
Each issue of Wyrd has given us a look at strange incidents that require the singular talents of Pitor Wyrd, who appears to be immortal. This issue starts out with a Kansas farmstead that has had a massacre, and a flying boy in a cape. Anyone who knows comics knows what that is implying, and it’s a bold move on Pires’ part to put Pitor in that scenario. Wyrd is told by his handler that if he goes to Kansas, he will be officially wiped from all records, and he can go waste his life however he sees fit. This is a major goal of Pitor’s, so obviously he goes. We next see Wyrd confront the boy, who seems to be expecting him. They do some tough-guy posturing, and the boy dives into his backstory; his powers activate, and he realizes he’s being monitored. His family and farmhouse are all a government installation, and he takes this information, in a word, badly.
Being immortal has its upsides
After killing his “parents” and numerous scientists and security guards, “Connor” (yeah he’s not Supes but he’s really, really similar to Supes) finds a spaceship with a cape in it, and it turns out that the cape is alive, and possibly smarter than anyone on Earth. Wyrd and Connor do a bit more bantering, and then Connor proceeds to lay the smackdown on our protagonist. In between scenes of Wyrd’s bones being shattered, we learn that Stillman, Pitor’s handler, set the whole thing up, with the intention of having Connor kill Wyrd. He approaches Connor, before Wyrd was ever contacted, holding a glowing green crystal, and tells him he can live if Pitor dies. Then Connor hucks Wyrd into the sun.
What doesn’t kill you makes you…bones?
Being tossed into a nuclear furnace doesn’t seem to phase Wyrd too much, as we see him plummet back down to Earth, hit real hard, and regrow himself from a skeleton. Naked, he wanders off into the distance, eventually coming across a diner in a yeehaw-seeming location in America (how coincidental that he landed roughly where he was taken from). We then flash forward thirty years, to Stillwell confronting Wyrd, asking for his help one more time. Pitor is understandably distrustful, but Stillwell promises him that he can show Wyrd how to die. Wyrd takes the deal, and they head to an underground facility with some hi-tech stuff going on, and that’s the end of the first arc.
What the hell is going on here?
So, Pitor Wyrd is immortal, but damageable, and he fights freaks of nature for the government, who for some reason wanted to kill him, but in the future, he decides to work with them one more time because they’ll tell him how to finally die, and he’s been alive since WWII. We’ve seen him go through a lot. Strange, but enjoyable. Whenever the next arc comes out, hopefully, all will be explained. Until then, it’s a wild ride on a crazy train and it’s definitely worth the price of the ticket.