Welcome to Tranquility

The cover of the first issue #1.

If there were an ongoing comic book that had so much potential, but lost its life too soon, it's Welcome to Tranquility. A Wildstorm print written by Gail Simone and art by Neil Googe, the story centers on the peaceful town of Tranquility - home to almost nothing but retired, former superheroes and villains. Sure, some old rivals still bicker, but that's all it is. Everything gets turned upside down when Mr. Articulate - a man loved by all in town - is mysteriously murdered, and it is up to sheriff Thomasina "Tommy" Lindo to figure it out.

The story is essentially one of murder and mystery. There aren't a lot of clues that allow you, the reader, to figure it out, but it's still told in a unique and entertaining way. All throughout the series are little throwbacks to the "comics" which these characters used to star in back when they were full fledged superheroes. It's an interesting way to give a little insight into these characters' histories, though sometimes it breaks up the story in a way where you feel like maybe you'll just skip it for the sake of getting on with it. (This becomes a little more of a thing in the six-issue miniseries "One Foot in the Grave," but it's really throughout the seventeen-issue run.)

Ultimately what sells this book are the characters. Tommy is a well written character who is charged with policing a town of superpowered people (known as Maxis in this universe). Her sister also works for Minxy Minerva - a legendary fighter pilot who has lost her mind in her old age but still have a lot of leeway for her role in winning World War II. There's Mayor Alex Fury, a Superman like character who runs the town, and his wife Suzy Fury (a.k.a. The Pink Bunny) who runs the local restaurant that functions almost like a church - everyone meets up there. Mr. Articulate has a pretty substantial role despite dying early on, but his "backstory" comics are surprisingly entertaining. He is something of a Sherlock Holmes kind of character. My two favorite characters though are probably Maximum Man and Emoticon. Maximum Man is a meek, timid accountant who - in homage to Captain Marvel - could turn into the most powerful superhero if he uttered a magic word. Only thing is, in his old age he has forgotten the word. For most of the first story arc, he is just in the background reading words from the dictionary out loud. Emoticon is the son of an old villain, but he is not a bad dude himself. His eyeballs are removed by the Typist in order to bring tragedy to his life - to mold him into a better villain. But he is given an LCD plate with a sort of replacement set of eyeballs. This allows him to see, but the only way he can express emotions on his face is to use emoticons.

One of the best characters, Coyote Kid was a bit of Jonah Hex, a bit of Ghost Rider.

Through it's brief twelve issue run, the comic hit pretty much every note you can expect out of a mainstream comic - you've got your good guys, your bad guys, your old grudges, someone coming back from the dead. The town and the characters are so endearing though, it feels like no other comic. It's chalk full of homages to other classic comic book characters, but keeping everyone feeling rather original and unique. The characters that do get background can seem strange and it only ever really happens to quickly get the reader up to speed (for example, Coyoto Kid is practically a noncharacter until they need him in One Foot in the Grave, so they make it a point to spend a good chunk of an issue explaining who he is). However, the characters are so interesting (and awesome) enough that you almost just wish every character would get a one-shot background issue!

The plot of the first story arc really revolves around mystery and learning about the town, so it's a little tough to talk about it without spoilers. I'll just say that it's a great; fun story. The second story arc gets a little weird, to say the least. Where the first arc was murder/mystery, the second was all mysticism/magic based. They almost couldn't be further apart in themes. It was really neat to have such a diverse range of stories in a series that ultimately lasted a total of twenty-four issues. The final arc is a classic tale of cover-ups and revenge, mixed in with drama on an intimate level. That speaks to the strength of Gail Simone as a writer (though Wonder Woman is the only interesting book in DC's New 52, I do still kind of miss Simone's writing of Wonder Woman - I think she's still the only woman to write the most well known female superhero, though I might be mistaken on that).

The art changes from Neil Googe to Horacio  Domingues from the main series to the One Foot in the Grave miniseries, but both do a great job capturing the same feel of the town and characters. Everyone is bright and colorful. It looks like an old comic book sometimes! Both artists were also asked to change up styles dramatically when they had to include those random pages of "old, fake comic books." Honestly? These artists, with Simone writing, didn't get to showcase their talents enough. The series was canceled far too soon.

Wildstorm has had a bit of a roller coaster time in the past five, six years. When Welcome to Tranquility came out, they were gearing up to reboot everything. Though the series existed inside the Wildstorm universe, they only made occasional, unspecific references to the world outside Tranquility. Still, that book was not immune to the constant barrage of universe revamping. The book was dropped in the aftermath of Christos Gage's crossover event Armageddon, returning briefly for a six-issue miniseries (which was also awesome, even if it doesn't quite close the world of Tranquility in a particularly satisfactory way). Then, DC essentially absorbed the Wildstorm universe into their own before closing down the imprint. It has since relaunched its Wildstorm brand, but Tranquility was not lucky enough to survive the storm.

Which is a shame. Welcome to Tranquility is one of my favorite comics from the past decade. It's uniqueness while paying homage to the old traditions of the medium brought an entertaining and delightful world to life. It's definitely worth checking out, especially given how brief the series is.

TRADE INFO:

Volume 1 - Collects issues #1 through #6 of the main series
Volume 2 - collects issues #7 through #12 of the main series
One Foot in the Grave - collects all six issues of the miniseries

For some reason, there is no trade collection of the "rebooted" main series, which lasted about five issues before succumbing to the world stopping Armageddon event. It's strange, but you might be able to find them on eBay or Amazon. It's just tough though because the reboot also starts with issue #1. So essentially, there are two issue #1s through #5s. Be careful if you're looking for them.