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HIGH ROADS #1
Mildly Recommended (6/10)
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DC Comics/Wildstorm Productions/Cliffhanger! imprint
Writer: Scott Lobdell
Pencils: Leinil Francis Yu
Inks: Gerry Alanguilan
Colors: Avalon Studios
Letters: Comicraft
Editor: Scott Dunbier
Price: $2.95 US/$4.95 CAN |
If you do buy High Roads, I have just one recommendation for you: Don't read the dialogue. Take in the beautiful artwork, some of the best that Yu has done, enjoy the wacky visuals of the characters and the perfect storytelling, but don't read the hackneyed, silly, trying way-too-hard-to-be-funny dialogue. Like most of the Cliffhanger books, this is built on gorgeous artwork, and Leinil Francis Yu really is doing the best work of his career. Unfortunately, even at his career best, Scott Lobdell's writing has never connected with me, and High Roads is
another in a long line of mini-series and series that reinforces that notion.
Upon opening the first couple
pages of this book, I was pretty well hooked. Yu starts the story off with an
amazing two-page spread of a Nazi cathedral, carved into the ice of Antarctica,
with a single American soldier hanging off the side. It is evocative, it is
unique, it unmistakably sets the scene for the story and sets the tone of the
book. And then, on the next page, the character speaks some of the most cliched
and laughable dialogue I've ever read, and the beauty of the artwork becomes the
secondary focus of the story.
There's a decent idea at the
heart of Lobdell's script, even a funny one. The lead in this very Howard
Chaykin-esque book is anything but a typical Chaykin protagonist. He's so
whitebread he makes Captain America look like a whoring drunk, and his southern
charm has southern charm on top of it. Unfortunately, Lobdell either went too
far over-the-top or he didn't go far enough, because while Nic Highroad's
character and dialogue is distinctive, it isn't really very funny.
There's so much potential in
this book - midget actors dressed up as Hitler, an American girl working in a
French brothel and bragging of her love affair with Hitler, the excitement of
France just after the end of World War II in Europe - it takes a certain kind of
talent to make it painful instead of funny. Lobdell manages, with dialogue that
offers up nothing the artwork can't already give us and a story that rolls out
of the gate very slowly. The visuals take the reader instantly by surprise,
captivating the imagination, while the plot is just getting around to
introducing an antagonist by the last page.
So, basically, you've just
read an entire review that boils down to: art fantastic, writing disappointing.
Well, yeah. It's just that I found the dichotomy so striking, as Yu's artwork is
gorgeous and detailed on every page, with incredible inks by Alanguilan and
gorgeous, lush colors by Avalon Studios, and the script is full of godawful,
unfunny dialogue. I was one of the many criticizing Marvel for the "'Nuff Said"
month of silent storytelling... now I find myself wishing Cliffhanger would try
a similar experiment for about six months.
Email Randy Lander comments about this review, or discuss it on the Fourth Rail message board. |
