The Ministry of Compliance #1 Review

The Ministry of Compliance #1 Review

Move over, Blade. IDW is bringing in the skilled sword-swinging hardass Avigail, head of the Ministry of Compliance. Academy Award-winning writer John Ridley (Marvel, DC, and IDW) brings a whole new twist to political thrillers. With her sword gray matter, she’s the second in command to the Prime Minister of Homeworld.

That’s right, she’s the one you call when your key players in a plot to take over Earth become greedy and impatient. You either comply or you lose your head without all the pageantry of a true galley-style decapitation. That’s how the story opens up: a hard right foot on the gas with the NOS pushing five pounds.

My inner conspiracy theorist spoke to me as John hit all the marks: corruption, alien invasion, shape-shifting races, illicit coercion, and military civilization deconstruction agendas. Ugh! As of now, we only know about a race of aliens, human-like, that have embedded themselves into Earth’s culture for 39 years and counting.

Based on the meeting that Avigail had with the Prime Minister shortly after cleansing the Ministry of Finance and his corrupt regulators back into compliance. It is here that she shares with the Prime Minister her concern about others who’ve lost interest in their initial objective.

The Prime Minister eases her concern as he lets her in on a little secret for her ears only, and this is where we learn about the master plan of the homeworld in a process called The Absorbtion. While poking fun at flat-earthers, John meticulously breaks down the obvious: that Earth has been hijacked through a series of ministries purposefully set up to distract humans beyond resistance to ensnare the planet in a series of 13 planets.

The disembodied planet these “aliens” belong to is referred to as the Devolution. The Ministry of Finance is dead, corruption is futile, the absorption is soon to be announced, and all is well with the operation.

Before meeting with the Prime Minister, she dismissed a few naive guards in suits who failed to identify her for security. After having just uprooted corruption, Avigail made a wall-crushing call to fire them on the spot. Following her conversation with the Prime Minister, the woman she fired approaches her to plead her case, hoping to appeal to Avigail’s emotional empathy.

What this woman, Kingsley, learns quickly is that empathy is not what makes Avigail the Minister of Compliance. It’s a strong character flaw that makes you empathize with Avigail, despite the fact that she is an alien in human skin. Her job is a difficult position that leaves no room for personal relationships or distractions that would come with it; she despises weakness. It’s necessary, and it’s a human component that I don’t quite understand exists if the character is, in fact, alien.

I’m in awe of her written action and her witty dialogue, but, personally, the flaw we share as an industry of writers is continuing a cycle of entertainment that doesn’t have all the answers to what real aliens are, only our interpretations. The Bible, the Kojikai, the Nihon Shoki, and the Bhagavad Gita, among other interpretations or manipulations of history, are merely that to a civilization that knows not what they do—until they do—no judgment here, though, despite the truth smacking the sheeple that is, but not me. I’m vibing with what John here chiming because it’s one of the best stories I’ve read this year.

Someone grab Morgan Freeman because I can picture him in this movie. The series isn’t done, but the invasion might be as the absorption hits a hard break check after the gathering of ministers. The Prime Minister was set to announce the so-called long-awaited absorption, but in its place is the mysterious silhouette of the Shadow Cabinet, or the powers behind the powers.

They’ve recalled the Prime Minister, which sounds exactly as it sounds and is not at all the same kind of recall that Governor Newsome escaped in California. What a MacBeth-style twist to an all-encompassing shitshow as the ministers scramble for answers! Avigail takes charge, barking orders to go about business as usual to prevent the savagery and panic, assimilation that humans exhibit, and she won’t stand for it.

Avigail knows she must protect their escape routes by collecting launch codes only known to the Minister of Transportation, which she ordered locked down. Without these codes, they can’t leave Earth.

Kingsley comes back into the mix, recruited by Avigail for her skills in deception. Kingsley is the definition of social and racial issues that mirror our own world’s social issues. Avigail refers to her as a Biracial, a half-born, but the Bible refers to these abominations as children of the fallen, otherwise referred to as Nephilim.

Most of us conspiracy theorists believe they were the giants immortalized in stone graves throughout the world or recorded in stories like David and Goliath. Unfortunately, the codes have been lifted, but not by corrupted alien allies in need of compliance but by humans confirming that their presence has been realized. To what ends do humans know?

Even worse, Kingsley might be a double agent after meeting with a possible love interest, Israel, who wishes for her to report on Avigail’s activities. I’m with Kingsley; I’m not sure if that’s a good idea. Avigail isn’t exactly the forgiving type, and traitors are her very motivation for being the minister of compliance.

Will Avigail learn of Kingsley’s disloyalty? Why has the Shadow Cabinet recalled the Prime Minister? I didn’t mention it above, but a new minister rises to the rank of Minister of Finance at the requested extension from Mathias, a somewhat love interest of Avigail’s.

We’re not sure she is receptive to his feelings in the same manner, but her anger toward his request to return home does say something about her feelings. I’m in love with this story as it unfolds the very nature of what appears to be an intergalactic coup where spies go to war with spies in the worst of battlefields—the shadows.

Can Avigail and Gry matter cut their way to the truth and bring compliance to this madness? If you would be so kind as to run to your local comic shop to make sure John finishes this future television production, I would be eternally grateful. Fiege should have asked John to write Secret Wars; it might have been a better spy thriller show.

Congrats to the whole team for this uncanny page-turning symphony of science fiction comic thrillers. As always, stay geeky, share the network, and don’t forget to catch me on the latest episode of Comics’N’Poptarts.