Rating: 2.5/5 – A very slow start for a promising series.
by ComicSpectrum reviewer Will Hessling.
This was a very slow issue, we got very little exposition or dialog. I also didn’t feel like I got any sort of touchstone to set my bearings by in the world the story is set in. I don’t need things to be rushed or spoon-fed to me, but in a first issue I do want a glimpse into the world that leaves me wanting more and I didn’t feel I got that here.
At the end of this issue we know a few things about our heroine; she is out of her element, disconnected, seemingly vulnerable, but not as vulnerable as one would think. This is something that could have been accomplished in 5 or 6 pages, but instead we are treated to several clichéd scenes that seemed to go on for longer than necessary to get the point across. A beautiful woman naked, vulnerable and exposed, gets harassed by some cliché men who are stopped by an also cliché not-so-bad guy with baggage. Not-so-bad guy takes vulnerable woman in. This took up the majority of the issue.
I don’t want to completely lambast this book, because I’m still hoping for good things to come. I thought the art by Toni Fejzula was a pleasant surprise. I found the style visually appealing and the more I looked at it the more I liked it. That said, it was kind of muddled at times. I wasn’t sure what I was supposed to be gathering from a couple panels. I was also expecting a lot from Eisner Award winner Greg Rucka. He mentioned that this idea has been looming in his mind for 20 years or more, and I think it might be one of those white whales for a writer. I’m not trying to make excuses, but sometimes there’s a character or idea so big that it’s terrifying, as if it’s something ancient that comes not from your own mind but somewhere else entirely, something that could cause blindness or madness or both if contemplated too long. I hope that’s what it is, and I hope he drags it out into the light and picks up the pace in the next issue.
Reviewed by: Will Hessling
(will@comicspectrum.com)
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