Xeno's Arrow #4
Greg Beettam & Stephen Geiger-Miller
Reviewed by Darren Hick

Xeno's Arrow is another comic which we have in multiple copies around the office. They seem to breed. Like rabbits. Now, rabbits are pretty, granted, but a lot of rabbits is still a lot of rabbits.

So, it's inevitable that I read Xeno's Arrow. I couldn't avoid it forever. And, surprisingly, it was actually pretty good. Surprisingly, because it's got an atrocious cover. OK, "atrocious" might be an overstatement, but it seems to have achieved the least dynamic layout possible. A red and green bubble-gum-machine-shaped robot, arms flailing, standing amidst a sterile purple and white office, anonymous computer readouts in the background. It did not immediately appeal to me, to say the least.

The black-and-white interior story is a good deal better. Almost Zen-like in execution, Xeno's Arrow follows the tale of Xeno, the last of his species, living in a futuristic zoo of sentient characters. (As an aside, why is it that characters representing the last of their species almost always sport names starting with X or Z? Why do their creators feel the need to continue this tradition of transparent metaphorical synchonicity?) Xeno, himself, is a young, naïve, bobble-headed alien trying to find his place in the universe. Surrounding him are the supporting characters: the Head Zookeeper, Xeno's teacher and keeper; Z'nyd'n, a nervous, and seemingly perpetually frightened creature resembling an egg with stalk-eyes; and Clemens, a mammal of some sort, with a head not unlike Bone's, who happened into the zoo, and now feels the need to escape.

The residents of the Intergalactic Zoo of Civilization are supposed to live in solitude, and the story takes off from the clandestine meetings of the above-mentioned creatures. With the Zookeeper absent, the characters discuss the nature of living in a prison, however spacious it might be. Comfort vs. Freedom; Illusion vs. Reality; and plenty of other dichotomies that can only be written with capital letters. It's a philosophical situation that has come up plenty of times throughout the history of literature, where it quite often has been pulled off more eloquently than it is here. That this particular issue is geared on this philosophical meditation is perhaps its greatest flaw; not that it isn't written well, but that the question has been asked before, and to no particular avail.

The characterization through which Meettam and Geiger-Miller structure their ponderance, however, is quite well executed. Xeno and his crew, though alien, are well-delineated. It's tough to tell in this 18-page story how deep the well runs, but I get the feeling that the characters have some depth. Though not exactly a meeting of the minds, the thoughts of the three lead captives, Xeno, Z'nyd'n and Clemens, play off well against each other, rounding out the various leads in the argument. In this particular issue, no particular climaxes occur, so there's a bit of a drag. Just the same, we're left with a bit of a cliffhanger, which at least indicates that the creators are basing their narrative on more than Socratic dialog.

The art itself is clean and attractive. Beettam's line is loose and heavy, and he liberally (but not excessively) employs graytones throughout. His characters are simply designed, and organically cartoony, and his backgrounds are detailed but clean -- all reflecting the orderly, just-this-side-of-sterile feel of a zoo colony. Though Beetham never quite crosses the line into visual dynamicism, his storytelling serves its purpose well. Flowing and consistant, Xeno's Arrow moves along without any particularly noteworthy bumps or backtracking.

So, Xeno's Arrow is aptly named. Hands up for those of you familiar with the philosophical ponderable, Xeno's Paradox. Named for its cerebral creator, it's the idea that one thing can never reach another -- that something can never reach its end. For example, a bullet fired from a gun soon reaches a point half-way between the gun and its target. And after that, it will halve the distance again... and again. Infinitely. It will continually halve the distance between where it was and where it's going, but since there is always a point half-way between where something is and where it's going, it can never -- logically -- reach that end-point. This seems to be the way of Xeno's Arrow. It's continually moving, but one gets the feeling in reading it that it's never quite going to get anywhere. Of course, this is in keeping with the basic principles of Zen (always becoming, never being), but might hamper Beettam and Geiger-Miller's apparent attempt to reach an all-over, all-ages audience in a periodical publication.

Published bi-monthly, new issues of Xeno's Arrow are available for $2.50 ($3.95 CDN) through Diamond Previews. Back issues can be had through Cold Cut Distribution. Contact them at 475-D Stockton Ave., San Jose, CA 95126. Phone (408)293-3844; Fax (408)293-6645. Issues #1-3 are available direct from Cup O' Tea for $2.50 USD or $3.95 CDN (plus $1.00 for postage, $0.50 each additonal copy; international orders plus $2.00 postage, $0.50 each additional copy).