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Reviewed by Kevin Hill If I shook a magic 8-ball prior to reading this comic, it would likely have returned some sage advice such as 'Outlook not good'. Disappointing is, I'm afraid, the word with which I'm basing this review. Awful, is the word I was originally contemplating using. Story wise, the book offers an incoherent muddle of uninteresting characters. You gain more of an idea of what is going on by reading the blurb on the back of the book, than you do if you read the whole book, and you'll be lucky if you can make it that far. The main problem seems to be the flow of the story, in that their isn't one. It starts off with a battle between a tribe and a voodoo witch doctor, which I have to say isn't a bad start to a book, and then rapidly descends into a series of action scenes, most of which contain speech balloons full of exclamations, that lack all focus: it's often difficult to discern which is the main character, or which character you're still looking at. Indicative of this is the epilogue, a bizarre addition to the book that appears to serve no purpose, and bears little relation to anything that has gone on prior to it, while claiming it as a 'sneak peek at the characters of volume 2'. By the time you read it, you realise that it does not bode well for the future of the book. This isn't, of course, helped by the artwork. To describe it as substandard would be an understatement. The quality of panels varies dramatically, with some containing little or no detail whatsoever, giving it somewhat of a rushed feel. This wouldn't be quite so bad, but it adds further distraction from the already confused narrative. Especially when the artist decides that in one panel he wants to be like Jim Mahfood, and then in the next he throws in a bizarre Peanuts-like version of a character. One of the worst elements of the book, and something I really need to highlight, is its descent into violence. There appears to be little discernable reason why it suddenly turns so violent, and it jars so badly with all that came before, especially the scene that involves some form of denouement of Christianity by the murder of a priest, which is all the more disturbing as, by then, you can't even remember there being a previous reference to Christianity. This effectively renders the scene as providing nothing more than shock value, although the shock is somewhat diminished by the lack of empathy with either character. To summarise then, this is a disappointing first volume, and a disappointing addition to a decent line of Western comics from Tokyopop. Its has two-dimensional characters, and a meandering, incoherent story in which it places them. Definitely not a book to recommend, especially if you object to random, meaningless, violence. Comment on this review of War On Flesh v1 on the Manga Life Forums. |
6 October 2009
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