Like everyone else I like to try something new, so this week I’ve been looking through some first issue of recently released new titles from Image Comics. All are still available at your local comic store, and I've chosen to review them in reverse order of preference.
6 - Codename Baboushka #1
The cover of this is a little seventies, but attractive and modern enough. Unfortunately that’s about the best I have to say on this comic. I did read to the end, but it was a close run thing, a slog done just so I could say I’d read it. The story is hackneyed, nothing new, and the drawing is not the worst I’ve ever seen, but it sure ain’t great. There are a few panes where you’d have to snap Babouska’s neck to get her head in that position. If you want the worst of Bond in a female, you might like this, but I can’t recommend it and I certainly wouldn’t buy it. One out of five.
5 - Saints #1
This very nearly came in sixth. The first time I read it I got about two pages in and thought it was rubbish! I hated the drawing and the story wasn’t exactly grabbing me, so I pushed it aside and read something else. I was going to leave it there and give this a zero, but I felt I had a duty to read to the end and while I still don’t like the style of the drawing, the storyline picks up well and it moves along nicely. Despite all expectation, byt the time I was finished I was quite curious about what happened next. This is a surprising and interesting twist on the view of saints, so if you like modern art, you might like this one. If I saw later issues, yes, I’d flick through, but I’m not about to add this one to my reading list. Two out of five.
4 - Tokyo Ghost #1
I wasn’t entirely sure about this one from seeing the cover, but the artwork is good and once I got into it I discovered the story was too. Basically, humanity has upgraded with nanotech, got themselves addicted to video games and the world is going to shit. So nothing new there. However the erstwhile heroine of this tale, Debbie, is un-jacked. No bots in her booty. And she’s out to take down a mass murdering player who can hack into any jacked body, including her muscle bound boyfriend. There’s tech and tit enough for any man in this story, plus cars and killers, gore and sex. What I’m not so sure about is if there’s story enough for Tokyo Ghost to have staying power. What I can see is that there is an audience out there for this one, it’s just maybe not me. A good three out of five.
3 - The Goddamned #1
This is the second of the titles with a strong religious theme, though I guess you can’t really avoid that if you you’re going to write a story about Cain, the man who invented murder. The Goddamned is set some 1600 years after Adam and Eve were expelled from Paradise, and Cain is picking himself out of the dirt. So this is all very caveman, pre-civilisation. It’s barbaric and holds nothing back. One thing that is out of place is the T-Rex, I’ll go with the ‘God cursed me so I can’t die’ theory, which means I have to accept that Cain lived through the time of the dinosaurs, its just that in this comic the T-Rex seems to co-exist with cavemen, and that didn’t happen. Still I liked this comic despite not expecting to. I liked the image of Noah too - much more likely than him looking like Russell Crow. Another good three out of five for this one.
2 - Symmetry #1
Out of all these comics from Image that I was given to review, Symmetry is the only one I’d seen and considered buying - though clearly not considered well enough to actually buy. Again we’re in a future where humans have gone all nano-tech symbiotic, but this time around it’s all for the good of mankind and we’re in a utopian future - I think I believe Tokyo Ghost’s view is more likely. Sadly. Though whether that’s sad for humanities sake or just because I have such a poor view of humanity, I’m not sure. Still, Symmetry presents a good, well drawn utopia that starts with a bang and then the flashback of explanation works well. The last page is particularly interesting and highlighted something I hadn’t noticed, only on this last page do you see a black skinned human. I enjoyed this one, but it didn’t bring anything especially new to the table. Worth a four out of five though.
1 - Huck #1
Huck stands all unassuming on the front cover of this issue. He is a big bloke with a dopey grin and a book to write in. So I took one look and was expecting an update of the Huckleberry Finn story, and I was very gladly surprised that I got nothing like that. Huck may be the “slow guy from the gas station”, but he is the perfect action hero from page one onward. This first issue sets the scene from Huck being found at an orphanage with a note saying “Please love him”, right through to his anonymous rescue of over 200 school girls from Boko Harem. It’s all really a shame some inconsiderate outsider has to go and spoil it all by revealing Huck to the press. The artwork in this piece is easily as good as the story. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it and when I next go to the Comix Shoppe, I will be looking for more. A very high four (nearly a five) for this introduction.
So there you go, proof you can’t judge a comic by its cover, Image isn’t everything, but it’s always worth looking just in case.
Gail lives in her own private dungeon populated with all the weird and the wonderful she can imagine. Some of it’s very weird, and the odd bits and pieces are a bit wonderful. Well okay, she lives in Swansea with her husband and daughter. And the world’s most demanding cat. To find out more about Gail, check out www.gailbwilliams.co.uk - Dare you!
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