Going in, odds were good that I would enjoy this book. I adored Neil Gaiman's landmark Sandman series, and I thoroughly enjoyed Caitlin R. Kiernan's oddly lyrical scripts on The Dreaming. On top of that, Joe Bennett's recent work has shown some stunning development, and that trend continues here. But overall, some inaccessibility and vague, unlikeable characters made for an awkward read. There's definitely some strong potential here and some dark characterization, but I felt removed, even distant, from the narrative somehow.
The Egyptian cat goddess Bast is desperate. Those like her have given in to fate, have resigned themselves to oblivion, but she refuses to die so quietly. She has to find a way to keep on living, has to find someone to believe in her. Fortunately for her, a lonely, scared young woman named Lucy is desperate herself, desperate to seek solace in someone -- or something -- else.
Joe Bennett has grown from being just a standard super-hero penciller into an artist with an eye for detail and everyday humanity over in Thor, and we see more of that development here. His work here reminds me of J. (Exiles) Calafiore's detailed, expressive work. My only qualm with his work here is that we never get a sense of how old Lucy and her friend Josh are. We're told they're young, but just how young is never clear.
Of course, that's a problem with the script as well. There's a reference to seventh-graders that makes me think Lucy and Josh might even be younger, but just about everything about them and the dialogue after that reference is inconsistent with that notion. Kiernan's script is also far too mired in the continuity from Gaiman's Sandman series. Knowledge of Bast's previous appearances and the nature of the Endless are pretty much requisite in the first half of the book.
It's the second half of the book in which the story began to turn around and pique my interest. Until Lucy's confrontation with her father, she -- and every other character in the book -- was quite distasteful. All of the characters seemed to be on the same wavelength -- selfishness -- and I found it wasn't entertaining to read about. But when Kiernan shows us Lucy's vulnerable side, it points to a far more compelling character. I guess we'll have to wait until the second issue to see which direction Kiernan chooses.
