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NOBLE CAUSES #1
Recommended (8/10)
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Image Comics
"In Sickness & In Health"
Pencils: Patrick Gleason
Inks: John Wycough
Colors: Chris Sotomayor & Jeremy Roberts
"Special Delivery"
Pencils: Amanda Conner
Inks: Jimmy Palmiotti
Writer: Jay Faerber
Letters: Ray Dillon
Price: $2.95 US/$4.95 CAN |
Already off to a strong start thanks to First Impressions, Noble Causes #1 gives a few more reasons to check out the series. Anyone who has
seen any variety of soap opera, or perhaps even the commercials for them, will
get a familiar feeling from Faerber's take on the genre. This reads a lot like
what the Fantastic Four might have been like if it weren't quite so squeaky
clean, with affairs, an extended family and a public reaction that treats them
more like royalty than super-heroes. The artwork in the first chapter is a
little rough, but certainly shows potential, and the art in the backup is of
course terrific work by Conner and Palmiotti. While I'm still not completely
sold on the series, I have to applaud the creators for doing something
different, and for doing it well.
Faerber skips the traditional
super-heroic wedding cliche of having villains attack, a wise move, focusing
instead on the more fresh notion of what happens at the reception. As is true in
soap operas, any large gathering of people is an excuse for secrets, infighting
and the beginning or furthering of feuds. The dynamics in the Noble family,
including their newest addition, are really interesting, with each character,
even the "bad" ones, having reasonable motivations and personalities. I can
already see Celeste becoming the Heather Locklear/Joan Collins "woman we love to
hate," and I enjoyed the insight into the Noble parents that we got in the
backup feature.
While the story is focused on
the reception, however, the wedding does get some coverage. In another good
creative choice, the wedding is seen from the outside, by media analysis and
through a series of quick scenes that show people in various situations
watching. I'm just old enough to remember the Prince Charles/Diana wedding, and
I thought Faerber captured the style of that type of public spectacle quite well
with the Race/Liz wedding.
In addition to the slowly
boiling subplots of distrust or bickering that we see with Celeste and Liz or
the appearance of Dr. Draconis, Faerber is mixing in the super-heroic pacing as
well. There are two big surprises this issue, one of which is a more soap
operatic twist, a revelation about one of the characters, and the other is one
that nobody will see coming, a sudden change that reshapes the series to some
degree. Structurally, this book shows off what Faerber can do when cut loose
from a lot of the editorial restrictions that have plagued some of his earlier
work, as the feel of the book, the pacing and the style, are absolutely perfect
for the type of story he's trying to tell.
While Faerber seems to have
honed his craft to a fine edge, however, others are still working out the kinks.
Gleason and Wycough, the artists on the book, are good, but they could really
use some work on distinguishing the various characters visually. With costumes
playing a fairly minor part in identification, distinctive facial features are
important, and I don't feel that the art is quite there in that department. In
addition, the work still seems to have rough edges to it, with some of the
action being a little cloudy. On the backup feature, Amanda Conner and Jimmy
Palmiotti demonstrate exactly what I'm talking about, with terrific facial
expressions and a really nice job on the fashions and hairstyles of the time
period in which the flashback takes place.
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