REVIEW: ‘Mind MGMT: Bootleg,’ Issue #1

Mind MGMT: Bootleg #1 is published by Dark Horse Comics, written by Matt Kindt, with art and letters by Farel Dalrymple. 20 years ago, the city of Zanzibar was wiped off the map in what history calls The Zanzibar Natural Disaster Confluence. This event left none of the citizens of the city alive. Now, on the 20th anniversary of this tumultuous event, a young man by the name of Kito Kessy is going to learn that there is a lot about that day the world does not remember.

The most considerable success that Mind MGMT: Bootleg #1 achieves is how smoothly it brings new readers up to speed. As someone who had never heard of Mind MGMT before reading this issue, I never would’ve guessed there are previous entries to read if not for a visit to the Dark Horse website. So if you have never read any of the previous stories but are interested, I can confirm that you don’t need to be worried about backstory bogging down your journey.

While the past doesn’t pose a problem for readers, the present isn’t without its flaws. While Mind MGMT: Bootleg #1 establishes its story clearly and competently, it lacks that key element that demands the reader commit to following the series further. The world seems interesting enough, but the way the reader is drawn into it by Kindt’s script is far too heavy with dry telling and not nearly enough showing. This dryness prevented me from becoming fully engaged with its narrative. This lack of a gripping plot hook leaves this book feeling underwhelming compared to other series in its genre.

This inability to engage the reader extends to the cast as well. While many of the elements of the different characters introduced here would sound interesting on paper, we never see any of these elements come to life in the story. Instead, they are more things the reader is simply told about.

All of these facts are drawn together in the series to reveal that there is a great threat out there that Mind Management is seeking to contain, and Kito is one of the few people on Earth the organization can trust to prevent the worst from happening. Given how common world-ending threats are in the comic book medium, this reveal, again told about in the driest of terms, fails to grab. Instead, it elicits a reaction that I can only describe as “what else you got-ism.” It failed to shock or grab me in any meaningful way and left me wishing it had something more to offer.

The art in Mind MGMT: Bootleg #1 does a good job working with what the story provides. With most of the narrative’s events encircled by institutional white walls and the vast majority of the cast wearing the most ordinary of clothes, there isn’t much the story can do to make its visuals grab onto the reader any more than the narrative does.

Lastly, we have the lettering. The lettering throughout does a solid job of delivering the story in a clean and easy-to-follow manner as it guides the reader through the story.

So, while Mind MGMT: Bootleg #1 does a good job of introducing the reader to its world, it doesn’t succeed at much else. While future installments could pick up the energy this entry lacks, there is not much here that would compel me to search out more from this story.

Mind MGMT: Bootleg #1 is available now wherever comics are sold.