SABRETOOTH: MARY SHELLEY OVERDRIVE #1
"Chapter 1"
Mildly Recommended (6/10)
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Marvel Comics
Writer: Dan Jolley
Artist: Greg Scott
Colors: J.D. Mettler
Letters: Randy Gentile
Editor: Mark Powers
Price: $2.99 US/$4.75 CAN |
One the surface, this seems like a comic book I'd enjoy. While I'm no big fan of the title character, the writing is tight and clear, with an interesting idea as the foundation and catalyst for the plot. The art is dark and foreboding, and the action is intense. But there's something... missing. I never find I'm drawn into the story, and that lack of involvement makes for an indifferent reaction.
After finishing up his latest job (in other words, "assassination"), Victor Creed, the mutant better known as Sabretooth, stumbles onto someone else's job, goin down at the same time in the same building. He suddenly finds himself the target of an entire team of unusual assassins, looking to eliminate a potential witness. Creed gets much more than he bargained for, though, when he abducts the killers' target, a beautiful young woman who's new to the Big City.
Greg Scott's name is a new one to me, but I'm impressed with this introduction. There are a number of influences at play in his work here, from Steve (Detective Comics) Lieber to Keith (Legion of Super-Heroes) Giffen. There's an inherent darkness in his work that suits the tone of the title character and the plot here, but that darkness never obfuscates the action or the story. His characters come off as a little stiff at times, but overall, his work is strong. I hope to see it on other titles in the near future.
Jolley's dialogue is sharp and it brings the business of killing to life in surprisingly strong detail. There's a hint of that on the stunning cover, with sensitive parts of the body spotlighted with text. There's also a bizarre, detached tone to the young woman's dialogue that leads me to believe that she's not what she seems, adding some suspense to the book.
In the end, though, there's nothing here for me to grab onto in order to involve me in this story. There's no character to relate to, no down-to-earth element that we can recognize from our own experiences. Furthermore, we've seen this sort of bad-guy-gets-thrust-into-good-guy-role thing before, so the plot comes off as a bit played out, especially when it comes to Sabretooth. There's something familiar about this story, and therefore, kind of redundant.
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