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TALEWEAVER #1
"The Journey Begins..."
Neutral (4/10)
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DC Comics/Wildstorm Productions
Writer: Leonard Banaag
Pencils: Philip Tan
Inks: Gary Mayoralgo
Colors: Avalon's Bart
Letters: Kathleen at fishbrain
Editor: Aaron Watanabe
Price: $3.50 US/$5.75 CAN |
One thing that the manga-inspired storytellers of Wildstorm don't seem to have captured is the strength of storytelling that manga offers. As with Ninja Boy, I found Taleweaver somewhat intriguing and
quite beautiful but very difficult to read. In trying to be flashy and colorful,
Tan and Mayoralgo have sacrificed clarity, and Banaag, in trying to confuse his
protagonist, has succeeded in confusing his readers as well. There's the
potential for a good story in here, but unless the creators get much clearer and
fast, it's going to be lost amidst similar looking characters, muddled
storytelling and flowery language masquerading as meaningful narration.
The basic premise of the story is quite
simple. Axel, a slave boy who tells stories of freedom finds, during an attack
on the camp by the Hawk's liberating forces, that his story may in fact be based
in reality. The way this story is executed is the most convoluted and confusing
way it could have been, with clumsy attempts to parallel Axel's story with the
actions of the rescuers and a large cast of characters who are very hard to
distinguish from one another.
I do have to admit that the book is quite
pretty to look at, with a brown/rust colored palette that is quite unusual and
some gorgeous detail on the weapons of war and the armor that the Hawk's army
wears. In addition, Tan and Mayoralgo do a convincing job on the slave camp,
with beautifully constructed buildings and towers, and their designs for the
Baboons and Hawks in Axel's story are quite detailed and attractive as well.
Unfortunately, the storytelling is severely
flawed. Too many panels on the page, combined with intricate but intrusive panel
borders, makes for a story that is very hard to follow visually. Without the
narration, I wouldn't have known what was supposed to be going on half the time,
and even with the narration, the story is sometimes unclear. It's easy to see
what the creators are trying to do, which is to create a fast-moving and layered
tapestry of action and character, but they're rushing things along.
This is the second of the "Pacific Rim"
inspired series from Wildstorm, and it seems to capture the surface elements of
manga without really capturing what makes it work. The artist has captured the
style of some manga artists, with the speedlines or the designs of the faces or
even the detail on the backgrounds, but they've failed to capture the
decompressed pacing or strong storytelling skills, and those are really what
makes manga so attractive, at least to this reader.
Email Randy Lander comments about this review. |
