Days Missing is a five-issue comic book miniseries from Archaia Studios, produced in partnership with Rodenberry Productions.

Based on a concept by Roddenberry Productions executive Trevor Roth, Days Missing tells the stories of a mysterious being known only as “The Steward.” His ability to literally “fold” days of time has allowed him to secretly remove critical days from our shared history that have forever changed the course of mankind.

The series is overseen by by editor Rob Levin, and is quite unique in the fact that it has no regular creative team, but rather, has a different creative team for each issue. As such, the series is more like a series of one-shots, with each depicting a different instance in which “The Steward” has interacted with mankind to alter the flow of history. However, one creative team does appear twice, with Phil Hester and Frazer Irving handling both the first and final installments of the series.

The complete list of teams is as follows:

Issue #1
Writer: Phil Hester (The Darkness)
Artist: Frazer Irving (Batman and Robin, 2000 AD)
Dateline: November 11th, 2004
Event: The outbreak of a deadly disease called Swazi Fever

Issue #2
Writer: David Hine (Batman: Battle for the Cowl)
Artist: Chris Burnham (X-Men: Divided We Stand)
Dateline: September 12th, 1815
Event: The true origin of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein

Issue #3
Writer: Ian Edginton (Stormwatch)
Artist: Lee Moder (Legion of Super-Heroes)
Dateline: November 11th, 2004
Event: The explosion of the Large Hadron Collider

Issue #4
Writer: Matz (The Killer)
Artist: Hugo Petrus (Wolverine: First Class)
Dateline: April 21st, 1519
Event: The fall of the Aztec Empire

Issue #5
Writer: Phil Hester (Firebreather)
Artist: Frazer Irving (Azrael: Death’s Dark Knight)
Dateline: January 3rd, 2009
Event: The creation of a dangerous and violent nanite entity

Dale Keown (Pitt) is the cover artists on every issue, with variant covers from Frazer Irving and the interior artist of each issue.

The Story

In this fifth issue of the series, we find The Steward on the day January 3rd, 2009. We find our protagonist in a rather precarious situation – about to be crushed in the grasp of a giant inhuman monstrosity. The Steward attempts to reason with the creature, but despite his best efforts, it decides that he must be terminated. Not prepared to accept this fate, The Steward folds time, and flips back 24 hours to January 2nd.

The next time we see The Steward, he is approaching a government research facility,  where a scientific breakthrough has  just occurred. The researchers in the facility have managed to take a small strand of nanites (tiny robotic devices), and caused them to self replicate, forming into a clot about the size of a tennis ball. It’s into this scenes that The Steward walks, bearing warnings of grave consequences for these actions. According to The Steward, he has lived through this day nine times, and each time, the seemingly innocuous ball of nanites eventually turns into a sentient lifeform, which reacts violently to its creators. Eventually, this lifeform will lead to the end of the human race, the planet, and the universe itself.

Inevitably the scientists take The Steward for some sort of crazed lunatic, and decide to lock him up in a broom closet until they can solve their dilemma, without having to involve the authorities. Several hours pass before one of the scientists decides to unlock the door and let him out again. It seems that everything The Steward said would happen, has come to pass, and the creature is now in human form.

It’s not long before the creature decides to attack, and after brief battle, The Steward decides to try and reason with the creature. There follows several pages of existential discussion, as The Steward tries to argue that the entity should not destroy humanity, and tries to convince the entity that its own life is indeed worth living. Obviously I’m not going to tell you how this turns out, you’ll have to buy the issue for that…

The Rating

Phil Hester delivers here, what is probably the best issue of this entire series. Hester’s plotting and pacing on this issue are absolutely spot-on, with never a dull moment. Much of the comic is taken up with an existential dialogue between The Steward and the nanite entity, but this conversation never drags, because Hester writes the scenes so well, and keeps it so interesting that you find yourself dragged into the debate. That’s actually a rather wonderful achievement, because it’s essentially the same debate that people like Issac Azimov have been writing about for years (that is, the validity of machine life as compared to organic life), and to be able to say something fresh about the topic, and actually keep it interesting, is a rather difficult task.

This issue also sees the return of Frazer Irving to the title, and what a welcome return it is! I’ve been a big fan of Frazer’s artwork for years now, having followed his progress since his early work at 2000 AD. Frazer is an artist with an instantly recognizable style, which is so inimitable that you could never mistake it for someone else’s work. Frazer’s work has been improving in leaps and bounds recently, and this issue of Days Missing is some of the very best work I’ve ever seen from him. Frazer’s linework and inking on this comic are somewhat minimalistic, and instead he defines details with different shadings of colour, which makes for a makes for some uniquely gorgeous looking panels! His sense of composition is perfect, his facial expressions are emotional and expressive… look, the art is just really damn good! Trust me!

It makes me sad that this fantastic series has come to an end, as I’ve really enjoyed every single issue, and all the creative teams involved with the books have just done such an amazing job. This final issue does hint at more to come though, and contains teasers of the presence of of an opposite force to that of The Steward. Haven’t you wondered why all these catastrophes keep occurring?

Days Missing #5 is a spectacular conclusion to what has shaped up to be one of this year’s best miniseries. Every issue of the series has been great, but this final  issue just took things to another level, with a brilliant twist that casts a new light on the events of all the previous issues. Both Phil Hester and Frazer Irving deliver some of the best work of their careers here, making this issue an unmissable classic!Gene Rodenberry would be pround!

I really hope Archaia do another series of this, because there’s tons more stories that could be told with this character, and so much potential left untapped!

Rating:

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To see a seven-page preview of Days Missing #5 click here

To read the full first issue of Days Missing by Phil Hester and Frazer Irving, completely free of charge, click here

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