Maybe it’s obvious from the title, but Mind MGMT is a bit of a head trip. Its watercolored art adds to the dreamlike quality of the story which focuses on a secret organization that recruits people with mind powers. Having enjoyed the first few issues but taking a break, I’m entering back into the MGMT world with issue #10 to answer the question, is it good?
Mind MGMT #10 (Dark Horse Comics)
As is usually the case with this series, this issue contains more than one story although most of the pages are devoted to the main plot moving forward in one of the three. Said plot involves the team cornering a man who can see the future by gathering the thoughts of anyone within a 15 mile radius. By say, acquiring the thoughts of multiple people, he can pinpoint when a person might clock him in the back of the head. Just getting the team close enough to ask him to join is hard enough and takes up much of his books pages.
How to pick a fight 101.
Artist and writer Matt Kindt introduces the character before all that happens though and gives the reader a sense of a man as an island. Imagine if you knew what someone was going to say before they knew themselves? By gathering thoughts you’d render everyone predictable, even if they were original in their own head before you heard them. The concept is interesting and is aided by Kindt making the character a gumshoe detective. His watercolors help deliver the story well, due to the dark charcoal and streaky style. It’s not enough that the man lives a miserable life, but the walls and world around him seem just as smudged and miserable as well.
Wack!
A quick aside: I’m not so sure said powers would help you when in a fist fight. How often do you telegraph your punches in such a situation? But the powers aren’t necessarily scientific so it’s easy to let it slide.
I suggest he get another weapon and leave that poor umbrella alone.
Ultimately it’s not about the powers anyway—it never has been in this series—but about the human frailty behind the powers. Loneliness is something everyone feels and it’s made even stronger with Kindt’s incredibly unique artistic style, at least when it comes to comic books.
Love that floor.
The two additional stories—one taking up a single page about a girl who can wander in peoples dreams, and another lasts two pages about a guy trying to figure out a cool superhero name—do a nice job expanding the universe of these mind-powered people. Imagine if you could knock buildings down with your mind? Of course, you’d need a sick superhero name to go with the powers; where’s the fun in not having one?! They both give this series a nice expanded feel, as if the book itself were a dossier on the mind-powered folk.
Bust a move!
8.0
- Interesting power explored.
- Hits at the core of human frailty.
- The art isn’t for everyone and sometimes plays like filler more than progressing the story.
It’s easy to imagine a world with people who have powers of the mind as a place filled with chaos and destruction. Just open any X-Men book and you can see the terror of such a thing. This series is different however, as it introduces a very realistic world where people do have these powers and they live rather ordinary lives. The fact that they have powers doesn’t seem to matter as much as their real life problems and frailties. By focusing on that Kindt has made a resonating work that sets itself apart from most of the books on the shelf.
Is It Good?
Yes. Melodious in its content and delivery.
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