When astronomer Cal discovers a previously unrecorded comet streaking across the sky, it becomes one in a series of moments that culminates in an event that may end up having ramifications for the whole world.
To give a full rundown of The Plight’s concept would be little spoilerific, as precisely what’s going on is gradually revealed as the comic progresses, but suffice to say it involves some decidedly untraditional interpretations of universal powers. God has become complacent in his omnipotence, the Devil has grown crafty in learning from his defeats, and Death is a weary and sarcastic presence of a shadowed face in a hoodie wearing a black kilt with a goat skull sporran. The latter of these also acts as the narrator, offering some ruminations on the nature of life and intransigence of death as he spins his story that goes as far to suggest that deities, as well as mortals, are all merely pieces in a celestial game that can never have a true winner.
Cal acts as a relatable everyman, and with a loving family and a successful career is representative of everything achieved by people content in their happiness. The contrast between the two storylines seems to suggest that despite God and the Devil’s eternal struggle over control of humanity, they don’t actually see the people who make it up and instead merely want the sense of power that comes with the right to rule.
It’s only at the very end that the strands come together, but when they do it becomes clear they were on course for an inevitable collision as a result of the misfortune of probability. Each event in everyone’s life is the result of innumerable other occurrences, without any one of which their life would have ended up in a completely different direction, and it’s this juxtaposition of occurrences both insignificant and cosmic that infuse events with a sense of welcome uncertainty.
It’s an intriguing setup and one with a lot of scope to develop, and while it’s difficult to predict exactly where the story is going to go from here, it’ll be interesting to see what it does when it gets there.
THE PLIGHT #1 / AUTHOR: RICHARD ALLEN, GREG LIDDLE / ARTIST: TOMMY CREE / PUBLISHER: DESERT WHALE COMICS / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW
