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CAGE #1
Mildly Recommended (5/10)
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Marvel Comics/MAX imprint
Writer: Brian Azzarello
Artist: Richard Corben
Colors: Jose Villarrubia
Letters: Comicraft
Editor: Axel Alonso
Price: $2.99 US/$4.75 CAN |
I came into
this with high expectations, based on the creative team and a premise that
seemed ideally suited to both them and the title character. Unfortunately, in
reinforcing the "street realism" that is Azzarello's trademark, some of the more
goofy and enjoyable elements of both Luke Cage and the blaxploitation genre that
the book is aiming for are lost. For this approach to work, there needs to be an
element of sly humor to it, and the book seems to be taking itself far too
seriously. No comic by this creative team could ever be bad, and their talent
shines through in the artwork and in some solid narration, but I was expecting
fun, and so far Cage is anything but.
One of the failures I've seen in the MAX reinventions, notably in Fury, has been
that the creators lost anything distinctive about their main characters without
replacing it with something more interesting. Cage's costume, his speech
patterns, everything about him were goofy as hell, but they were distinctive.
The look that Corben has given Cage is generic, lacking even the elements of
flash and style that we see in the silhouette on the cover. It's a dead-on
portrayal of the ghetto and its inhabitants, but it doesn't have the style that
Power Man had.
The same, I'm sad to say, is
true of Azzarello's characterization of the character. His cold-hearted attitude
about money is a shift from the Power Man we've known, and it borders on
interesting when he's listening to a heart-broken mother tell her story, all the
while dispassionately thinking how much of a liar she is, but ultimately Cage's
lack of passion makes it hard to summon up any feelings about the character.
Where the book does succeed,
as expected, is in its gritty portrayal of urban street life. It's probably not
wholly realistic, but it emulates the urban crime feeling pretty well. The
ridiculous posturing of the gang members, the constant sex and violence
surrounding Cage's life and the general look and feel of the settings are all
quite believable. In addition, while Cage may not be as interesting as he once
was, Azzarello and Corben have turned him into one scary dude. His showdown with
the gang, as well as the cool and quiet way he looks at everything, is
intriguing. It does make him pretty hard to relate to, but the flipside of that
is that it makes him look like a badass.
I'm not really sure whether I'll continue on with Cage or not. The first issue of Fury disappointed me as well, but it turned out to be a bit of a fun ride, albeit one that didn't stack up well against Garth Ennis's other work. In the end, Cage looks like it might
follow the same path: It's okay, but given the amount of great stuff out there
(including other work by Azzarello), it sort of pales by comparison.
Email Randy Lander comments about this review, or discuss it on the Fourth Rail message board. |
