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Spoiler Free Synopsis: London, 1910. Blarion
Mercurial, also known as Blair, has a brilliant mind, but was he was born and
raised in poverty until Chairman Illocrant recognizes his gift and brings him
to the Academy Scientifica-Lucidus. The brightest minds of the Academy have
been tapped with finding a new source of energy, but Blair has chosen to
disregard this mandate and attempt to unlock the power of the mind with his
Integrated Mesmonic Convertor. Unfortunately, his first attempt leads to fire
and destruction at the Academy. A second attempt brings forth his childhood
imaginary friend, Figment.
Between hiding Figment from Chairman
Illocrant and being given seven days to produce something innovative or else
return to a penniless life, the stressors Blair is under begins to take its
toll. A last ditch effort to make his machine work, while continually ignoring
the insights of Figment, leads to Blair reversing the mesmonic flow
and opening a portal to the realms of his imagination that immediately sucks
Figment and Blair in.
What dangers and wonders await our pair
of heroes? What will become of the portal left unattended at the Academy? If
the portal is a doorway, what could come through from the other side? And how
will Blair ever realize his full potential and become the Dreamfinder?
Disney Source Material: Figment moves
readers away from the Disneyland and Magic Kingdom source attractions for the
first time. With a shift to Epcot we get arguably one of the most unique
attractions ever conceived by Imagineering, Journey Into Imagination. The attraction
centered around the Dreamfinder and Figment, his favorite figment of imagination,
as they traveled to the Dream Port and across various art forms where
imagination is a crucial skill. The details of the attraction were fleshed out
by Tony Baxter, Andrew Gaskill, and X Atencio to name just a few. One Little
Spark, the main theme song of the attraction and instant ear worm, was the work
of none other than the Sherman Brothers.
Journey Into Imagination still holds a
special place in many guests’ hearts. While the attraction itself has gone
through multiple iterations since, the current version returned Figment to the pavilion,
has several nods to the original installation (including one to Dreamfinder), and
even utilizes portion of One Little Spark. Figment himself has been utilized as
a mascot for Epcot and its festivals for several years. The original attraction
may no longer be present in the park, but its legacy lives in the hearts of
these guests, making any adaptation instantly beloved and scrutinized at the
same time.
Marvel Storytelling: Jim Zub was the
writer tasked with creating the origin story for Dreamfinder and Figment. With
a career that includes work at DC, Marvel, Image, UDON, and IDW, not to mention
Wizards of the Coast, it takes a good bit of imagination to move between the
various stories he’s had a hand in creating, so it’s no wonder he was tapped
here. Taking something that people already love and giving it new life is never
easy, especially in the day and age when there are so many fanfiction stories
that readers could be clinging too, but Zub is up to the challenge.
Filipe Andrade handles the main art
duties for the five issue series, but this isn’t his first visit to the Disney
Kingdoms, as he filled in for the third issue of Seekers of the Weird. The
artwork is good and keeps each of the worlds and realms visited clearly defined,
with some terrific designs around artifacts and locations. When it comes to
characters, however, there are some serious inconsistencies that warp features
in strange ways from time to time, and that’s not just stretching the
boundaries of imagination. Meanwhile, coloring is managed by Jean-Francois Beaulieu,
who has kept the palette crisp and clean for Seekers of the Weird, Big Thunder
Mountain Railroad, and The Haunted Mansion.
With the wide ranging themes and
locations visited in quick succession throughout the story makes Figment work
better as a collected volume rather than individual issues. Blair is not the
Dreamfinder guests and readers know and love here. In fact, there is an
argument that he isn’t even that character by the end of the story, but we’ll
save those thoughts for when we get into Figment 2. Speaking of Figment, his
high energy, hard to focus, lovable nature is the purest beam of light and
narrative throughout the entirety of the story.
Bonus Time: The Figment collected volume
gives us one of the great bonus material sections of all of the Disney Kingdoms
stories. Before we even get into the comic itself, we are treated to a two page
preface from Tony Baxter himself. Throughout it we learn more about the
imagination behind the Imagineering process, the creation of Figment and his
tie to Magnum, P.I, and the Sherman Brothers’ song. As expected, cover art
appears throughout, with concept art and variant covers taking up a portion of
the concluding section of the volume. There is also a ton of concept work from
the Journey Into Imagination attraction, including character concepts and five
double-page splashes of concept art from Tony Baxter, Andrew Gaskill, and Dan
Goozee.
Conclusion: Considering how gorgeous,
ornate, and meticulous the Journey Into Imagination attraction was, the bar was
very high for the Figment Disney Kingdoms story. What I didn’t want to see was
a rehash of the attraction itself, and this origin story certainly isn’t that.
This story takes place in a time where imagination and science were both coming
to life and being challenged in unique ways, but not when you’d expect to see
Dreamfinder and Figment. The story clearly sets a foundation for the future
adventures of the imaginative, lovable duo, but it takes a long time to get
through this prelude. While I feel that this volume is a bit too convoluted for
its own good and could have been shortened to a pair of issues at most, it held
enough of my interest and gave me enough questions to see what lies ahead for
our heroes in their Dream Machine. I’d recommend setting yourself up to read
Figment and its sequel, Figment 2, back-to-back for a fully-fledged experience.
Further Reading:
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1 comment:
I just found out last week that a friend of ours was a "close personal friend" of the Dreamfinder years ago.
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