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MUTANT, TEXAS: TALES OF SHERIFF IDA RED #1
Recommended (8/10)
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Oni Press
Writer: Paul Dini
Artist/Letters: J. Bone
Editor: Jamie S. Rich
Price: $2.95 US/$4.50 CAN |
I enjoyed Ida Red when she first appeared in one of Paul Dini's Jingle Belle specials last year (also published by Oni Press), and I was happy to hear he was breaking her out into her own spinoff limited series. But this isn't what I expected, and I rather enjoyed the surprise. Dini's penchant for combining innocent cartoon-like characters with some darker story elements turns up again, and it made for a much more engaging read than I anticipated.
Ida Red is a beautiful young woman growing up in the unusual town of Mutant, Texas. An orphan, she was raised by a mutated bear, and she's friends with just about every mutant citizen in town. But Ida Red feels like an outsider, feels different, and it's because unlike her fellow Mutant residents, she's normal, having manifested a power only once when she was an infant. Ida finds out that one of her friends had been kidnapped, and it leads her to become wrapped up in a secret, nefarious plot involving the town's populace.
The book opens with a dark scene, telling of the origin of the title character as an infant... how her parents were killed and how her powers first manifested themselves. The scene is surprisingly dark in tone, not just in appearance. It's not at all what I expected, but it hooked me on the plot immediately. It also helps to balance the inherently silly (albeit fun) core concept of a town of mutants and cute animals that walk on two legs and talk.
Mind you, while the book opens on that intense tone, there's still a charming innocence to it, and that's J. Bone was such a good choice as the artist. Jeff Smith and Bruce Timm collide in a delightful amalgam, and though his art is reminiscent of the work of those two artists, it's developed into its own entity as well. His simple sense of design is fun and striking, and with one character, he seems to pay a nice little homage to the work of Walt (Pogo) Kelly.
With this new limited series, Oni Press once again proves that it stands at the forefront of the industry when it comes to bringing new and entertaining comics that are appropriate for kids and just as much fun for us former kids. Dini and Bone have instilled this book with a charming sense of innocence and irreverence.
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