In another medium, Mind
MGMT would be referred to as a High Concept story. What if the US government had a secret
program with weaponized mind control specialists?
In its particulars, Mind
MGMT is the story of Meru, a true crime writer who investigates a curious
incident involving a commercial flight whose passengers all show signs of
amnesia. Her investigation throws her
into a spy story with psychics, immortal assassins, and former government
operatives.
Given the widespread praise that this series has received in
the single issue format, I was underwhelmed by this collection of the first six
issues. The plotting is remarkably
simple for such a convoluted tale: Maru travels to exotic location; escapes
confrontation with assassins, then receives lengthy exposition. There are a few problems with this. First, Kindt gives too much telling without
enough showing. We receive detailed
backstory and answers to questions that have never been asked. Second, there’s no time to develop tension or
for the reader to ask questions that are later answered. We’re given the answers without the questions
ever being raised. This means that
there is no payoff in the answers, since we aren’t invested. Also, we have no real investment in any of
the characters in the story. Our
protagonist, Meru, seems to be sympathetic primarily because she is the
protagonist. Otherwise Meru is as much
of a mystery as anything else in this story.
Quick mention must be made of the art choices in Mind MGMT. Kindt uses a rough watercolor style that is
more common in more personal comics. It
is a bit surprising to see it used with this type of storytelling, & some
readers may find it a bit jarring.
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