As if to capitalize on the 10th anniversary of the tragedy of September 11th, Image Comics releases The Big Lie, written by Rick Veitch.  The comic starts off as an attempt by a woman in the future to travel back in time and save her husband who died during the terrorist attack.  While explaining the attacks, the people she attempts to convince rattle off “Truther” beliefs and pokes holes in her story.  There’s a reason this is also called “The Truther Comic.”

A lab tech travels back in time on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001 to try and get her husband out of the world trade center before it falls, but will the facts convince him before it’s too late? A riveting tale of 9/11 by award winning master storyteller RICK VEITCH that exposes ‘The Big Lie!’

It’d be one thing if the comic focused on one person’s loss during the tragedy, but the fact that it questions the events spinning it into one big giant conspiracy comes off as insensitive and exploitative during this anniversary.  Even by the end of the story, the lab tech who starts off with such strong beliefs as to what happened, questions them, which shows her as a pretty weak minded individual.  And even in all of the theories it throws out, it doesn’t go too much in depth into them, instead skimming each one without exploring whether it’s plausible.  It goes so far as to include the theory that this was an inside job to be used as an excuse for Neo-Cons to expand American Imperialism.

The day was a tragedy, no matter what you believe the truth might be.  On the 10th anniversary of it, we need to focus on those lost to terrorism and what’s come since.  We were all changed, especially those who lost a loved one and this comic’s release doesn’t feel like it attempts to ask questions about the event, but throw out conspiracies without exploration of them, which feels half-assed and disgraces the memory of those lost.  Instead of a reflection, we’re left with profiteering on a tragedy an act it accuses the Bush administration of doing itself.  The Big Lie to me feels like a big insult.

Story: 6 Art: 6.75 Overall: 6.25 Recommendation: Pass

Story: Rick Veitch Art: Rick Veitch and Gary Erskine Cover: Thomas Yeates

Publisher: Image Comics Cost: $3.99 Release Date: September 7

Image Comics provided Graphic Policy with an advance copy of this issue for FREE for review.