I’ve been trying not to compare this new Dirk Gently comic with Douglas Adams’ original novels. I’ve been trying to judge it on its own merits and pretend, as much as possible, that it’s not based on one of my favorite book series. Still, this issue makes it very difficult to continue doing that. In this issue, I’m pretty sure they gave Dirk superpowers.

It’s always been implied that Dirk is a psychic—though he vehemently denies it, both to himself and to those closest to him. This issue begins in Dirk’s childhood, with him being rigorously tested for psychic abilities by the U.S. government (despite the fact that Dirk is British). They say that his abilities are something to do with interconnectedness, and that he “should see connections we don’t.” Then, in the present, adult Dirk communicates telepathically with an elephant—while still vehemently denying that he’s a psychic.

In my opinion, this whole section of the comic reads like bad fan fiction. They’re attempting to write something in the style of a familiar character, without having the slightest grasp of what makes that character who he is.

Fortunately, things do get better after that. Some of the plot developments are pretty interesting. They explore how the family whose words have been stolen from them, respond to music. They discover who’s behind the poaching of Sid the Rhino—which in turn leads to more questions. Writer Arvind Ethan David has created a compelling and worthwhile comic, with a number of threads that I want to explore further. Then, they go back to Dirk as a child, and… well, I can’t tell you what happens, but I didn’t care much for it.

This comic would be so much better if it didn’t have Dirk Gently in it. His character is the weak link in an otherwise very interesting story, and the constant attempts to connect it to people and events from the books seem gimmicky and mainly serve to bring down the entire comic. If this was a story about jaded conservationist Madluck Biggun (one of the characters Dirk has met on this journey), trying to stop a group of rhino poachers and discovering a tribe of people who have lost all abilities of communication, it would be a great comic and one that I’d love to read. Throwing Dirk Gently into the mix just turns it into kind of a mess.