Fused — Canned Heat

July 5, 2004 | Trades

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Fused — Canned Heat
Steve Niles, Paul Lee, Brad Rader, Ben Templesmith
Rocket Comics/Dark Horse Books
$12.95 US (Paperback)
** 1/2 (out of five)

Fused is the story of Mark Haggerty: a man trapped inside a machine.
OK, so that sounds like the lead-in to one of the most tired clichés in comic books. If your mind is already be drifting to Iron Man or any of the other armoured heroes created over the years, Fused is pretty much what you’re used to.
But that doesn’t mean it’s all bad.
Steve Niles — the writer behind 30 Days Of Night and Criminal Macabre — finally moves away from horror, but doesn’t really take readers anywhere they haven’t been before.
Haggerty is wearing an experimental robotic suit equipped with artificial intelligence when an accident forces him to not only remain in the suit, but ‘fused’ with it.
The use of three different artists on the four chapters of this collection also tends to hamper any kind of flow it may attempt to build. Paul Lee, Brad Rader and frequent Niles collaborator Ben Templesmith all bring interesting elements to Fused, but their clashing styles tend to overwhelm the story.
In the end all you may get out of Fused is confused.

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