Syphon is an upcoming Image Comics and Top Cow Productions series about the ultimate empath featuring a creative team including Patrick Meaney, Jeff Edwards, and Mohsen Ashraf. The three-issue comic book combines the genres of fantasy and noir to create a world unlike anything readers have seen before.
Meaney is an award-winning director who helmed several comic book documentaries, including Grant Morrison: Talking With Gods, Neil Gaiman: Dream Dangerously, and The Image Revolution. Edwards has worked on some of the artwork for IDW Publishing's G.I. Joe and Transformers comics. Ashraf is working on a fantasy novel series called Pantheon and previously worked as a New York City investment banker and as a tech executive in Silicon Valley. Their Syphon mini-series will join the roster of Image and Top Cow titles like Vinyl coming out this year.
In the official Image Comics press release, Syphon introduces readers to a world in which Sylas, an EMT working in New York City, obtains empathic powers. This supernatural empathy allows him to sense and take the pain away from others, at the cost of cursing him with their misery. He finds himself in over his head even further when a mysterious drifter drags him into a war centered around gaining control of the human condition.
Ashraf talks about the message behind his story: "Syphon is a very personal story for a generation that's dealt with a myriad of injustice and inequality over the years," and he adds, "We all carry trauma with us, and this new series examines the fragile state of our collective psyche and how best to deal with it. Ultimately it delivers a message of hope, that we can be the change-makers we seek." Focusing on empathy, something a lot of people need right now, is a very powerful element in stories, to the point where a character like Batman losing empathy is a huge deal. It can also be a tricky thing to get people to feel, but if a comic can get a reader to empathize with its characters, they've likely created a character that readers will want to stick with and root for.
The preview pages above show a brief glimpse into a gritty world bathed in red. They also present the conflict that can be created by using these supernatural empathy powers that don't just extend to taking others' miseries. Readers will see how Sylas, likely the next user to get these empathic powers, chooses to go about his crusade of healing the sick. This certainly isn't the first piece of media to utilize such powers in their narrative, a recent example of such powers being in The Flash TV show, but it'll be interesting to see how Syphon presents the power of empathy as the main focus of their story. The first issue of Syphon will be available in comic book stores on July 21, 2021.
Source: Image Comics
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