Jack Staff Volume 4: Rocky Realities TPB

It’s been some time since Volume 3 of Paul Grist’s unorthodox superhero title hit the stands, but finally all 225 pages of Volume 4 are available to coincide with the a re-launch and re-banding of the irregularly published comic.

For those not in the know, Jack Staff (who is in no way similar to Marvel’s Union Jack), is Britain’s greatest hero. Or, at least he was. Twenty years ago, he disappeared and everyone forgot about him. Since the start of Volume 1, he’s been forced back into the hero game, and not entirely willingly. Additionally, his effectiveness as a superhero is somewhat questionable at best.

For the last three volumes, Jack has faced weird threats from supernatural forces, cosmic entities, military mishaps and plain old supervillains. He’s helped (and sometimes hindered) by some bizarre support such as Becky Burdock (vampire journalist), Tom-Tom, the Robot Man (neither a man, nor a robot) and the mysterious Q branch. At the same time, there’s a slowly developing plot about a major oncoming conflict, which Jack and the others will play a part of.

This volume is no different, and perhaps turns some of the weirdness up a level. The whole thing kicks off in an alternate reality where the characters are all reversed. Then a Reality Agent chimpanzee turns up to sort things out. Oh, and he has his own theme song.

There’s then lots of fun and confusion to be had as more doppelgangers appear, a troubled detective starts to get help from his imaginary childhood friends and the past catches up with a reformed criminal, who doesn’t seem to be trying to hard to go straight. Plus, the big conflict seems to be getting closer ….

Paul Grist continues to follow his usual story telling pattern of sticking with one character for a few pages, leaping to another one, and then back. Plus, Jack Staff is not the main focus of some of the story threads played out. Perhaps this, as well as the fact the Grist is playing about with his own characters in this volume may confuse the uninitiated, so perhaps not an ideal “jumping on” point. This one does require a bit of background knowledge first.

There’s a great sense of humour at work in the characters, plot and dialogue, as well as some nice portentous hints of what’s to come.

The artwork continues to be vibrant and colourful, but sparing at the same time, with characters not always confined in traditional comic book panels (particularly The Druid, who regularly breaks the fourth wall, and talks directly to the reader).

So, if you want something that is a bit of a break from your regular superheroes, in terms of the artwork, writing and characters as well as being fun and intriguing, then check out Jack Staff. Converts won’t need me to tell them to get this. New initiates would be best starting with the previous volumes, Everything Used to Be Back & White, Soldiers and Echoes of Tomorrow all available at a comic shop near you.

Reviewed by Jonathan Miller