I noticed someone in the comment section for some of Jay and Miles X-plain the X-Men's recent posts that seems really irate that they won't give Scott Lodbell's writing in the Onslaught era enough credit. What a strange hill to choose to die on. The Internet, everyone. Anyway, here's a couple first issues.
An armored giant collects a child from a tree growing upon a stone dais, pillar, something. The two travel across many lands, the giant protecting the child from a lot of different hostile creatures. But the giant won't let the child near any people, on the rare occasion they meet others. Sometimes, when the child tries to approach something, the land itself acts to keep her away. And there are a couple of grumpy blue guys with a giant cyborg vulture that are very interested in the child. Or at least the kid's blood, which spurs tremendous plant growth.
I wasn't sure how this would work, being a silent comic. There actually are a few voice balloons, from the farmers they briefly meet, and the blue guys. But the voice balloons have a sort of pictograph writing, so we have to infer what they're saying anyway. It works pretty well, at least so far. We know there's something weird about the kid, and about the giant. We know the giant seems mostly interested in protecting the child, but will indulge her occasionally.
What it really reminds me of is an episode of Samurai Jack. Not one in particular, but that show would have these long stretches of Jack simply traveling through these beautiful or strange landscapes, until he ran into something he'd have to fight. That's kind of what this is. The giant and the child travel across all these different landscapes, and Bergara uses broad panels to show their travels, or the giant watching the child play or explore. Then we get broad panels of the giant fighting some creature while the child watches from a distance. The lack of dialogue helps there, too, since Samurai Jack would usually be silent during those stretches.
There's the occasional splash page to let Bergara and Lopes show off, sometimes intermixing the violence and the beauty of the setting, sometimes just one or the other. Bergara gets more creative with the creature and landscapes than he did in Coda, making it more of alien landscape. Lopes colors are not as vivid and bright as Bergara used in Coda, but they still contribute to the strange beauty of the setting. Plus, I think they fit a story which is, so far, a bit gentler. This world doesn't seem in be in the aftermath of a cataclysm, where everyone is just scrabbling to survive. There's danger, but day-to-day life isn't as hard.
There are people in this fictional world with powers, and people looking for those people. Some of them work for the government, and some lady sends a guy with mind powers -telepathy, but I'm not ruling out mind control - named Tom out to find and investigate (which may mean "abduct") as many as possible. There's another guy with teleportation powers, Brennar, also collecting kids with powers to fund his retirement. Who he works for is unknown.
The story seems like it might revolve around James, though, who is a teenager with some level of telekinesis. His parents seem to be expecting him to make some sort of decision, but it doesn't seem to be related to his powers, but they don't seem to know about them. He's got a friend who seems to like kickboxing who does know about his powers, who thinks he should start dating again.
I like that Vivenzio is trying to establish a lot of threads right from the start. Presumably these will all start colliding before too long, so it's nice to have a sense of some of the players at the start. It also seems like a lot of the powers come with drawbacks. Tom has headaches and needs medication. Brenner pukes when he uses his powers. The little girl he grabs at the end has acid spit, puke, and it seems to hurt her if she doesn't cough it up. We haven't seen anything for James yet, but he also doesn't seem to be taxing his powers locking doors and lifting tennis balls.
At the same time, it wouldn't hurt to use character's names more often. James is only described by that name in a single caption box on the second page. His friend, whose name we aren't told, refers to him as "J". The government lady, no clue what her name is. That's one of those things where I wonder if it would be better to have a more focused first issue. Maybe just focus on one plot thread. I guess as long as they all keep moving forward it'll work out.
Falzone's has a very strong line when it comes to people, at least the major characters. They all have sharply defined noses, jawlines. The government boss lady could cut a roast with her cheek bones. James' father, less so. Jowls, much softer shading on the chin and the nose. Like he's not in the know about his own son's life, and that makes him soft. Or being mixed up with these powers is hard and wears away the soft parts from people. Reminds me a little of Phil Noto, but less stiff. Characters look like they're in motion, rather than posing for a photograph.
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