I've loved George Perez's work ever since I first saw it as a kid on the cover of New Teen Titans vol.1 #2, and later on, I would go on to seek out his other work, new and old. So when I heard that Perez was pencilling a new CrossGen title, it was an easy decision to order it. Though the visuals here boasted the same level of detail and energy I've come to expect and love from Perez's artwork, to my surprise and disappointment, this was far from the best I've seen from him. The art is difficult to discern at times as the plot.
A powerful other-dimensional being named Solusandra finds herself lost and amnesiac on an alien world. As she tries to get her physical and emotional bearings, she discovers she's on a world obsessed with a virtual-reality game. The citizenry is addicted to the VR gameplay supplied by Radiant Inc., and Andra finds herself right in the middle of it. Her godlike powers make her a central figure in the game. Unfortunately, she's taken the place of Lindy Karsten -- the former Radiant, who maintained order in the gameworld -- just as she was staving off a malevolent systems hack by the man known as Zeuss.
No one does detail, energy and action like George Perez. No one. It's why he's considered a living legend in the industry. But here, dark colors in dark scenes muddy his linework a fair bit. There's too much detail; it all starts to blend together after a while. I'm reminded of the stark sci-fi landscape from Perez's Crimson Plague book and how that didn't connect with readers either. The opening scene -- full of cosmic ebergy and explosions -- is much brigher, but again, it's too much. The eye is inundated with colors, and it's not the least bit clear as to what is going on.
The same holds true of the script. It seems that part of the point of this book is to explore the mystery of who Andra Radiant really is. The plot will be one of self-discovery, I would imagine, but Kesel is too successful when it comes to conveying Andra's confusion. I can honestly say that I really only followed about half of the book, and that's being generous.
Another problem is accessibility. One might expect that a first issue of a new series, featuring new characters never seen before, would be fairly accessible. It's not. In addition to the vague script and plot, there are numerous references to the other CrossGen universe titles. Characters from the other books pop up, "sensing" the cosmic chaos of the events of this story. I only follow two other CrossGen title faithfully -- Scion and Meridian -- so some of the references were lost on me.
