CHEW, Volume 1: Taster's Choice

    In the not-too-distant future, an outbreak of the bird flu has caused the selling, ownership, and eating of poultry to be a federal crime. Leading this fight is agent John Chu, the newest member of the Food And Drug Administration's Special Crimes Unit. John's got a special power- he's cibopathic, which means when he takes a bite out of an apple, he can see it being grown, picked, and shipped to the store. It also makes eating meat kinda gross. So when an FDA inspector goes missing, John's diet is going to consist of eating some of the clues, such as the missing agent's dead dog. Mmmmm... that's good detectin'!

    Where was I when this series first came out? This 2009 series by John Layman (Detective Comics) and Rob Guillory has everything I look for in a series. It's got humor, a compelling mystery, great action, and it's got heart... and lungs...and spleen.

   As a chef, I appreciate the food aspect of this story and the main character of Chu is awesome. He's awkward in the love department but when the chips are down, he's a total badass! If this was ever made into a series or movie, I could see Ken Leung (LOST, The Night Shift) tackling the role.

   But I wasn't 100% sold on this series. For some reason around issue 3, the series starts to focus on an alien planet and it just didn't seem to fit. The whole conspiracy behind the bird flu is a good enough to keep me coming back. CHEW did not need to become a sci-fi all of a sudden and the quick change isn't adequately addressed in volume 1. Thankfully, everything else I saw in this opening round was enough to keep me coming back (for the next volume at least.)

   In volume 2, if Layman didn't properly tackle the mystery planet plot almost immediately and with a smart explanation for its inclusion, I might be going on a fast from CHEW after the next course. But for now, this crazy cool series is on my comic book shopping list!

   Worth Consuming

   Rating: 8 out of 10 stars.