Cigarettes, Alcohol, And Occult Mystery In Wyrd #1

There are problems, cases, too strange for US law enforcement to solve. Pitor Wyrd is the one who solves them–for a fee, of course. An unaging, invincible detective with a penchant for the strange, Wyrd is the one the government calls when things go very badly and very strange.
This issue: Crimea. A failed attempt at recreating a certain US supersolider. A monster roaming the countryside. A trail of bodies.

Straight out of the chute, Wyrd #1 establishes Pitor Wyrd as a unique individual. (Sort of. More on that later.) The man can’t die, but he’s one of those self-destructive, angsty, sadistic cats who will put that little character quirk to the test whenever he gets bored and drunk. He’s a pain in the backside, but one that US law enforcement tolerates, because the dude gets results.

Immediately following the opening failed suicide attempt, Curt Pires sends Wyrd to Crimea to deal with a failed Cold-War era bio-weapon on a murder spree. Pires plays up a lot of genre tropes, and it’s really unclear at this point how much of that is intentional. Pitor has some really interesting qualities, and there’s some mystery about the hows and whys, but it’s really hard not to draw comparison to another blond haired, snarky, working-class occult detective.
Antonio Fuso’s pencils deliver an engaging visual world for Wyrd to play in. There are several places in this mini-series opener where Pires steps back and allows Fuso to advance the story without cluttering the whole thing up with exposition and dialogue. Fuso’s action sequences are of note, and there’s a slick little trick he pulls out with inset x-ray panels that demonstrate the extent of the injuries Wyrd is taking in real time.

Wyrd #1 is a solid opener that establishes a mood more than really telling the story. There are obvious comparisons to be made to a few other properties, but it’s an interesting, engaging read with pretty fantastic artwork, and there’s plenty of bait on the hook to bring readers back for at least a second installment.
Wyrd #1 (of 4), Dark Horse Comics, released 29 January 2019. Written by Curt Pires, art/cover by Antonio Fuso, color by Stefano Simeone, letters by Micah Myers, variant cover by Jeff Lemire, backup by Hue Nguyen.