I found the first issue of Symbiotes to be a slightly frustrating read. Because there are seeds of greatness (not just goodness, but greatness) in this book, including an imaginative science-fiction world, a vast but still manageable cast of characters and gorgeous, gorgeous computer-generated artwork. Unfortunately, there is one crucial problem in the issue, and that is that the whole thing printed so dark that there are panels whre I literally cannot see what is supposed to be going on. If someone can just amp up the brightness a little bit in future issues, The Symbiotes will be something truly special, a sweeping sci-fi epic with unconventional and beautiful artwork and some sharp, clever writing to boot. Even with the clarity problems in this issue, I can't help but recommend it on many levels, because Vaughn builds a hell of a foundation for his story and Lippert's artwork is clearly the product of a lot of hard work.
When you hear about a new comics company, the general thought is that their work is going to be black and white, or even if it is color, probably overpriced and on cheap paper. It's just the realities of small press publishing. So I'm more than a little impressed by The Symbiotes because Drive Comics has produced a comic that is simply gorgeous in terms of production values, with lush full-color artwork and slick, sturdy paper stock. Part of me wonders if a cheaper grade of paper might have soaked up the color better and made the book more readable, but in general, I have to say that The Symbiotes is one of those small press comics, like The Red Star, that stands a chance of catching the eye of the mainstream consumer.
While I was indeed impressed by Lippert's gorgeous artwork, though, I've always been a writer-driven reader, and Vaughn turns in a pretty solid first issue here. He serves notice that this is going to be a big story, exploring several major characters and factions and focusing on who these characters are and what they do rather than giving us a litany of his world and how it works. The details of the politics of this science-fiction world, with its racist imperialist human government and super-powered freedom fighters, becomes perfectly clear as we view snapshots in the characters' lives, and it's much more fun to learn the information this way. While Vaughn does have a couple of "Silver Age" moments with the characters shouting out their names like they're talking to the audience (the "GENERAL TARIK" moment is the most egregious), in general his dialogue is smooth and natural, and the banter between the Symbiotes in the first part of the issue is a lot of fun. I also quite enjoyed the soldier Paul's take on the alien Vah'hrats and where they come from, which is another aspect of the propaganda and dehumanization of the enemy that seems to be a theme in the wars that The Symbiotes is about.
I found the artwork in The Symbiotes to be too dark much of the time, especially on the many sequences set at night, where the figures often just vanished into the backgrounds, but that doesn't mean I didn't like it. Lippert's computer-generated artwork occasionally has some of the stiff, unreal facial expressions common in this kind of work, but in general I thought he did a pretty good job of conveying a sense of life and motion into the characters. And the technology and inanimate stuff, like the ruined reactor or indeed the explosion that destroys it, is truly phenomenal, and some of the action sequences, especially the attempt of the "old man" to rescue a woman from her tormentors, are pretty impressive as well.
The Symbiotes immediately stands out as something different thanks to its artwork and its exploration of a star-spanning science-fiction premise. A little fine-tuning on minor but important details like the brightness of the pages and maybe a tweaking of some of the dialogue, and this will be a sci-fi epic for a medium that doesn't see a lot of that kind of thing. Time will tell whether the creators can live up to the potential introduced in this issue, but based on my general reaction, I'm inclined to think that they will.
