I check out just about anything that DC's Vertigo imprint puts on the stands. The imprint brought non-super-hero comics into the mainstream of the industry, and more often than not, Vertigo titles are characterized by maturity, an edge and intelligence in the writing. That's true of this title as well, but the narrative doesn't flow smoothly at all and boasts an inaccessible tone. On top of that, none of the characters are terribly likeable. The art tells the story clearly, though, and the designs for the elements that combine science-fiction and the supernatural are inventive and distinct. This is a new monthly comic, but it seems to be without an apparent catalyst to set the story in motion.
Three young witches reach climactic turning points in their lives. One, whose convinced a Peruvian cult she is a goddess, and she uses their faith to make a rather unlikely and magical journey possible. Meanwhile, a young Korean girl who has acclimated to live in the United States rather quickly decides to spend an unsupervised evening alone with a male companion, but it won't end well for him. And in the skies over America, at 35,000 feet, a young musician and her family making their way to their next gig are faced with the horrifying prospect that they won't make it.
Gallagher and Randall's art boasts a soft quality that brings a suprising cuteness to the main characters. It makes them seem less threatening, lulling the reader with a false impression. The linework here reminds me a little of Jeffrey (Legionnaires) Moy's work, but moreso of Peter (Lucifer) Gross's style. Of course, judging from the thanks credit he's given here, I would imagine he had a hand in this book somehow. Miller's colors bring an unnatural and darker quality to the visuals that's in keeping with the mysterious and magical elements in the plot.
I'm intrigued by the premise here, and I want to see how the three main characters, depicted on the cover, come together and how they're bound to the same fate. The sci-fi/magic mix that Elsa uses is actually quite unusual and interesting. There's an unsettling quality to the amalgam that piques one's curiosity.
Where this introductory issue goes awry is that the script tends to obfuscate the events and characters' motives rather than focusing on establishing the core premise behind the book. The characters seem a bit on the hateful side, so they're not enough to hook the reader. And there's hardly a hint as to what the book is going to be about. A framing sequence could have helped somewhat, something that linked the three main characters together and/or provided a little something in the way of exposition.
