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ATHENA INC.: THE MANHUNTER PROJECT #1
Mildly Recommended (5/10)
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Image Comics
Writer: Brian Holguin
Artist: Jay Anacleto
Price: $2.95 US/$4.50 CAN |
I was pretty impressed with Athena Inc.: The Beginning, and I was
looking forward to seeing where Holguin and Anacleto would take the regular
series. Unfortunately, while this issue still shows off the potential of the
concept and some absolutely stunning artwork, it highlights a potential problem
for the unusual storytelling style the pair have adopted. In a word, the problem
is confusion, as it is often very hard to discern who is talking and to whom
they are talking, especially since there's plenty of dialogue that takes place
entirely in the lead character's head.
For such an action-oriented premise, Athena Inc. seems to be a fairly cerebral
premise. The action is left mostly in the reader's imagination, since get only
snapshots of the characters throughout a lot of text. The focus of the story is
on the interaction between Mary and her alternate personality and the playful
banter she has with her handler while on the mission. Mary has a distorted sense
of reality, trying to fit implanted memories into the cold reality that her
bosses would prefer she has, and that mixture of normal and sweet personality
with that of a cold-blooded assassin makes for a fascinating dichotomy.
However, the storytelling
choices made here are a bit odd. Anacleto's artwork is beautiful, but it is
barely dripped out to the reader in this format, in largely unremarkable scenes
that hint at what's going on more than telling the reader anything. Holguin is
deliberately playing up a contrast between the pictures and the text, which
means that it is often very hard to tell who is who. Though the cast of
characters is fairly limited, there is still a reasonable amount of confusion as
to where Gwen is at any given time and what she's doing. In addition, her
fractured personality often makes it hard to get a grasp on what she's talking
about.
Athena Inc. relies on a lot of atmosphere, but it could
use more of an explanation. If I hadn't read the solicitations, I would have no
idea that the story centered around an assassin with two personalities. In fact,
I'd have only the vaguest idea what the book is about, probably thinking that it
was a book about a female assassin working for a shadowy group of operators,
which seems to be only the most cliched elements of the story. A little more
explanation, whether in comics form or simply in a text explanation of the
premise, would help considerably.
Bottom line, Athena Inc. is a book with a talented creative team and
a lot of potential. But while the illustrated text format gives it an unusual
strength and style than one would expect from this genre, it also causes
problems as far as keeping the reader informed and entertained. A little more
interaction between pictures and words would do the comic a world of
good.
Email Randy Lander comments about this review, or discuss it on the Fourth Rail message board. |
