Burning Man is quickly helping me become a bigger fan of Peter Milligan. With Pyrate Queen being his first Bad Idea, this has to something special. I like to think it is with how Milligan gives readers an empathetic main character. Of course, having a unique storytelling method certainly helps.
Burning Man: Oliver’s Inferno
Let’s talk about our title character Oliver Doyle. The first time we see him, he’s burning alive out of nowhere. Even more bizarre is that he was holding part of what was chasing him. I guess demons are more similar to gorillas than humans. Wait what?
Did that get your attention? This is how Milligan gains readers interest in the early pages. This entire absurd concept is impossible to forget and makes readers curious on what happened. They’ll probably share the leading detective’s curiosity as much as his frustrations. Imagine being on a date or an important meeting and all you can think about is some guy who shouldn’t have survived.
Anyway back to Oliver, he’s trying to get his life back together as well. Readers learn with him the heart wrenching tragedy of his life. Oliver was a burglar, a con, and a thief; but instead of disgust, readers feel empathy with his shame. Especially as they feel his anger, frustrations, and need to be loved. All Oliver ever needed was a better direction and he may have just found that in his nurse.
It’s a pretty standard soap opera tale, but there’s way more to it.
Be The Envy Of Your Friends!
I don’t just mean a plot twist on Nurse Florence’s true identity, but a branching narrative. Burning Man is split into different endings in a way I find similar to Pokemon Ultra Sun and Moon’s giveaways.
It’s like this, there are endings in the second issue, supported by backups in other Bad Ideas. One of them looks like it leads to a bad ending for Oliver, while the other is Hiltrude’s backstory. At the very least they’re meant to give Hiltrude more of a character than just a plot element. She’s out to prove something to her peers that will benefit Oliver, even if it is stringing him along. Meanwhile readers have a choice on where the plot should go.
But here’s the catch, the people who have already pre-ordered Bad Idea Two’s comics will benefit the most. Not just for having first dibs on comics that could fly off the shelves, but the first-come first-serve stickers at the start of everything. What? Bad Idea gave out these stickers for people who pre-ordered Bad Idea’s second phase. Those can be exchanged for a third ending path. Provided that the checks sent with the sticker and information don’t bounce. Which isn’t easy when you have to write the checks to something without a person’s name.
Was I supposed to write in the “to” section: Bad Idea?
Burning Man: Disruptive Innovations
Burning Man is one Bad Idea I can compare with Hero Trade in terms of getting in readers’ heads. We have a title character readers can’t help having sympathy and empathy for. Something that plays well into the multiple ending paths because they can decide where Oliver’s arc goes. It depends on how much they want to care for him or Hiltrude. That is if they have the best choice on endings. I have a funny feeling these endings might be a Passive/Aggressive case.
But as a concept it’s executed really well, if a little exploitive. Pending final score 8.5/10.