He’s the best kept secret in the galaxy and he just might be humanities only hope. Talk about pressure. Check out a review AND preview of Days Missing #1
Days Missing #1
Publisher: Archaia Comics
Writer: Phil Hester
Artist: Frazer Irving
Covers: Dale Keown, Frazer Irving, Phil Hester
Summary: Since the dawn of time, a being has existed whose interaction and interference with mankind has shaped human history. His powers of time and intellect have allowed him to secretly remove certain critical days from the historical record. Their stories have never been told. Their details have never been documented. Their existence is not remembered. But the occurrences of these days have forever changed the course of humanity’s evolution. These are the DAYS MISSING from our existence, and they are about to be revealed…
In the premiere issue, a deadly new virus threatens to herald an extinction level event if The Steward can’t find a cure for scientists to discover…the day before. From Archaia and Roddenberry Productions, the people behind STAR TREK, comes a new science-fiction mini-series that explores a new frontier.
Review: You ever have one of those days? Nothing seems to go right and it feels like the universe is taking a giant dump on you. Or maybe you made some really bad decisions you wish you could take back. You’d do anything to press rewind and be able to relive the day with the knowledge of what went wrong and how to fix it. Not only does The Steward have that power, he’s been using it to help humanity since the dawn of time. So how come we’ve never heard of him?
Days Missing is a five-issue miniseries from Archaia Comics, created by Roddenberry Productions executive Trevor Roth. Yup, Roddenberry, as in the people who brought you Star Trek. If you aren’t a Trek fan, don’t worry, this isn’t connected, it’s just great sci-fi. In this first issue we’re introduced to a very powerful being known only as The Steward. The Steward has the ability to “fold” time, essentially bringing two points in time together so that a day never happened. It also means the day starts over for everyone else. Days Missing is like Men In Black without the comedy and only one man. The Steward is literally the best-kept secret in the galaxy because no one remembers he exists after he’s gone. He’s able to shape history by quietly affecting changes that have a major impact. He’s witnessed several “judgement days” on his watch only to narrowly avoid them with a little help from humanity itself. He also makes sure to keep Earth’s secret history of these tragic days in a massive library in the hopes that one day, someone else besides him will be able to read it.
The first issue drops us into the middle of a deadly outbreak in Africa. What’s been dubbed Swazi fever is infecting 95% of the population with no hope of slowing down anytime soon. The Steward is desperately trying to find a cure with a team of doctors but things look bleak when even those in containment suits are succumbing to the fever. It’s here we learn The Steward has been hard at work since before the time of the dinosaurs. “Your years pass in front of me like hours. When death comes for even an elderly human, I am watching the death of a child,” he says. Even though things look bleak, The Steward uses his past experiences to help him with this latest crisis, including a day spent in ancient Babylonia. Even though he may be timeless himself, time is constantly ticking for The Steward. It seems he only has 24 hours to influence some major alteration of events and that means the pressure is always on.
Days Missing #1 is one, comprehensive story that delivers the dramatic end civilization could face if it weren’t for our hidden savior. In essence, that’s what The Steward is – a guardian angel. Writer Phil Hester (The Darkness) does an excellent job conveying the thoughts and emotions of such a lonely character. Why does he care so much for Earth? There’s no apparent reason or hidden agenda for his involvement in our lives save for the fact that he yearns for some type of companionship, but isn’t that reason enough? For The Steward, it seems so. The art by Frazer Irving (Azrael: Death’s Dark Knight) is dark and heavy overall, which works for such serious subject matter. No one is having fun in this situation, least of all the humans bleeding to death from the outbreak. The color palette varies from the current crisis to The Steward’s previous history changing escapades, which is a welcome distinction from the usual black-and-white scenario.
Although Days Missing is telling the story of the mysterious The Steward, the issues themselves will all focus on different historically significant dates. Number one took place November 11, 2004 but the next will uncover what happened on September 12, 1815. Here’s a hint: It involves a Frankenstein-like creature. (Check out the book’s official site for more.) Making it even more accessible for readers to jump in at any point, each issue will be from a different creative team (aside from the first and last issues being done by Hester and Irving). Issue #2 is written by David Hine (Batman: Battle for the Cowl) and illustrated by Chris Burnham (X-Men: Divided We Stand), issue #3 by Ian Edginton (Stormwatch) and Lee Moder (Legion of Super-Heroes) and issue #4 by Matz (The Killer) and Hugo Petrus (Wolverine: First Class). I wouldn’t wait if I were you, this is shaping up to be an epic sci-fi adventure.
Days Missing #1 is on sale tomorrow (for only 99¢ !) but you can get a sneak preview right now courtesy of Archaia Comics.
August 18th, 2009 at 7:16 pm
If Phil Hester writes it, I’m buyin’ it.
August 21st, 2009 at 4:43 am
Nice review, though I’m unclear how the idea is supposed to work.
So The Steward has the ability to fold time, so make a specific day never have happened in order to save mankind. Got it. But then I’m unclear how no one remembers him. Does he ONLY appear on days that he then makes disappear? Because if not - if he’s hanging around on other days that are retained in history - then why does no one remember him? And why, in the case of the first issue’s story, does he not just make this day disappear when things take a turn for the worse in the first place, rather than hanging around and letting so many people die? And the most confusing bit for me: if he makes this one day (Nov. 11) disappear, what about all the days and events leading up to that specific day? Does he make them disappear one by one in order to totally resolve the outbreak?
Not trying to be a pain, it sounds like it’s got potential, I just want to understand the idea behind the character and story, and - as a writer myself - want to know how he makes it all work.
Any insights?
August 21st, 2009 at 2:12 pm
Yes Reay, I do have insights! As far as I can tell from the first issue he ONLY is around on those days. If he’s around other times, he probably sticks to the shadows just observing. If he was around too much he’d probably influence more of Earth’s history for good or for bad than he wanted too.
He doesn’t make a day completely disappear….just Take One of the day if you will. He’s there trying to make things better at first, and yes lots of people may die, but when he figures out the solution to the particular problem at hand he leaves whispers of that problem for others to use to fix it the next time around, and that would be Take Two. So, the day doesn’t disappear, it just starts over, the second time without him. He doesn’t touch the days before, just the vital day I guess. Like how in a lot of time travel stories you hear about how this one day in history is so important and that’s why someone went back to screw with it etc.
Did that help?