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BLACK TIDE #1-2
Mildly Recommended (5/10)
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Image Comics
Writer: Debbie Bishop
Pencils: Mike S. Miller
Inks: Armando Durruthy & Rick Ketchum
Colors: James Rochelle & Matt Nelson
Letters: Dreamer Design
Editors: Darren G. Davis & Diana Swartz
Price: $2.95 US/$4.70 CAN |
Upon opening
the first page of these books, I thought maybe I'd found hidden treasure, an
action story with espionage and super-heroic overtones. However, as the story
grew to include the secret realm of Atlantis and bigger uses of magical powers,
I found myself less interested. Bishop's story concepts aren't bad, but they're
not really all that interesting to me personally, and it also seems like she's
rushing into the action, making it hard to connect with the characters or their
motivations. The artwork, on the other hand, is pretty solid, with Mike Miller
doing more impressive work than I've seen from his work on some of DC's books.
In fact, Black Tide reminds me somewhat of some of Crossgen's
books, blending magic, technology and super-hero trappings. It certainly has the
Crossgen look, with clear and colorful artwork. However, while Crossgen's pacing
often feels a little slow to me, Bishop's pacing seems off in the other
direction. The basic idea of the three lead characters are well established with
only a few pages, but the choice to include splashy action scenes like the
destruction of Atlantis or a battle between Justin and Atlantean guards in the
middle of the rest of the story leaves the history of the story far too
unexplored for my taste.
In terms of action, the series
is top-notch. Bishop sets up some intriguing situations in the first issue
involving aerial combat and martial arts and an effective airborne chase scene
in the beginning of the second issue, and Miller delivers on the action with
style. While I have my problems with the somewhat thin plot and characters, I
can't complain about the level of excitement that the series has so far.
Unfortunately, that level of action sometimes necessitates short and ineffective
exposition.
From reading the notes and
letter columns, it's clear that Bishop has a lot of background in mind for this
series, and that she has a lot of ideas for the interaction between the three
protagonists and the warrior-queen of Atlantis. However, within the pages of the
series itself, there's very little indication of that background or imagination,
focused as it is on getting to the next action sequence or cliffhanger. As a
result, the story looks a little generic right now, full of fantasy/super-hero
cliches like a powerful being reborn and posing a danger to others, a secret
society living beneath ours and palace intrigue causing problems amongst
friends. None of these elements are so overly familiar that they can't be shaped
into a new story, but they need a lot more room to breathe than they are being
given thus far.
I'll be honest, part of my dislike of Black Tide stems from a feeling that the more interesting elements of the series showed up in the first few pages of the first issue and were then dismissed for a more standard fantasy/super-hero series. Those who enjoy the fantasy/science-fiction blend that has become Crossgen's niche might find themselves enjoying Black Tide a great deal more than I did. And whatever my problems with the story,
I can't deny that the book has some gorgeous artwork.
These
comic books were not part of this week's new releases.
Email Randy Lander comments about this review, or discuss it on the Fourth Rail message board. |
