CREDIT: BOOM! Studios
Rating: 4/5 – An Epic Story that Spans Time and Space.
by ComicSpectrum reviewer Adam Alamo.
George Pérez’s Sirens is the first comic book coming out of his exclusive deal with Boom and his first original comic book in over 10 years. Pérez is known for his legendary work on The Avengers, Teen Titans, Wonder Woman, and a slew of other A-list books for the “big two” and it’s an absolute pleasure to see him back in action, even more so working on a book of his own creation. Add to it that the book features an all female team and there was no way I was going to pass on this book. Pérez has always written great female characters (see Wonder Woman) and I couldn’t wait to see what he did with a whole slew of them.
George Pérez’s Sirens is described as telling a sci-fi story that spans time and space and it certainly delivers on that promise in the first issue. Every couple pages or so the story quickly shifts between characters in different times and places, in what appears to be a large scale story involving magicians, warriors, gunslingers, dragons, and robots (in 1949 Alabama no less). It is a lot to take in, I’ll admit, but the transitions are done really well. In each new time/place introduced, there is something that either ties it to the previous time/place or ties it to the narrative as a whole, so that you know everything and everyone is somehow related. It’s pretty easy to follow most of the story lines, but I found those set in the future a little less so. The book is extremely dialogue heavy and in the future scenes the techno-babble is hard to follow without multiple reads. The end of the issue pulls all the heroines together in the distant future and sets them up against the antagonist for what I assume will be the remainder of the 6-issue miniseries.
As thrilling as it was to dive into a new George Pérez book for his storytelling, with him it is only half the story. The other half is his art. Pérez has a classic style that remains consistent even as comic art continually pushes the boundaries. Some may not see this as a positive, but I think that would be like discounting an ancient philosopher’s thoughts and ideas as outdated. My only criticism is that many the panels were way too small, I wanted to see the art bigger! When you add in Pérez’s heavy inks and the plethora of word bubbles, the panels didn’t leave much room to truly let his art shine. Considering the size and scope promised in this book, his art deserves large, cinematic panels. We get a hint of that at the end of the book when the team is put together and I hope we get to see more of that in future issues.
It’s really good to see George Pérez back in the saddle after so many years and this latest adventure starts off big. Pérez delivers a lot of story and information with the first issue of Sirens and for the most part it all comes together well. I’m sure all questions will be answered as the story unfolds in future issues, but at the end of this first issue I felt as disoriented as some of the Sirens, the ending felt like being thrown into the middle of a conversation with little to no context. Moving forward, I’m interested to see how he balances fleshing out the large cast with providing insight into the plot. This first issue certainly set up a lot and it’ll be up to future issues to deliver. With Pérez at the helm, though, I don’t think there’s a lot to worry about.
Reviewed by: Adam Alamo
(adam@comicspectrum.com)
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