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FELON #1
Recommended (8/10)
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Image Comics
Writer: Greg Rucka
Pencils: Matthew Clark
Inks: Ray Snyder
Colors: Matt Nelson
Letters: Dreamer Designs
Editor: Renae Geerlings
Price: $2.95 US |
I've been
anticipating this series since it was first announced, as it sounded like a
great premise by a great creative team. The behind-the-scenes changes that have
turned it into an eight-issue mini instead of an ongoing are disappointing, but
not enough to dampen my enthusiasm much. Overall, I got what I expected, which
is a just plain mean protagonist who I can still identify with and some good
hard-boiled crime comics. I'm honestly a little disappointed in the art side, as
Clark's storytelling is sometimes hard to follow, but the writing doesn't let me
down at all and I'm certain I'll be onboard for all eight issues of the run.
Comparisons have been drawn between this series and the film (and novel) Payback, and it seems a fair comparison. Our lead,
Cassiday, is every bit as driven, smart and potentially brutal as Richard
Stark's protagonist Parker, and Rucka really conveys that hard edge to her
personality in Cassiday's terse dialogue. She spares no words for banter or
friendliness or even threats, really, she just gets her point across. It's
interesting that so much of the dialogue or noise in this issue comes from sound
effects or other people, and it says a lot about the protagonist.
This directness is also
evident in the plot, which sees her in very short order steal an identity and a
credit card, travel cross-country and head out searching for something that was
over five years ago. The reader is not directly informed of what happened to put
her in prison, but the basics of what happened are perfectly clear, and her
anger seems a reasonable enough response. I'm also enjoying the feel that, so
far, she hasn't met anyone who is even remotely her match, which sets up the
expectation that later on she will.
On the art side, Clark is
more of a mixed bag than I would have expected. In general, the work is
polished, and the characters are well-designed. There are some wonderful and
subtle moments where we see that "Cassiday" has palmed a credit card, or see
what she's doing with her first night out (a burger, a haircut and late night
television) and an incredible sequence where she implies violence simply by
standing by a kitchen knife. On the other hand, there are some very unclear
sequences. The silhouette used during her "pickpocket" scene is very hard to
figure out, and the choice of extreme close-ups, silhouettes and odd camera
angles used in the garage renders that scene incomprehensible beyond the most
basic of plot mechanics. I look at the cover, the clarity and detail, and
compare it to the interior, and I can't help but be a little disappointed.
However, while I might have
wished for a stronger debut on the art side, the work is solid enough and the
writing more than makes up for any flaws. I think that Top Cow is making a big
mistake with their choice to publish this as a limited series rather than the
ongoing the creators had originally planned to do, but I'll be happy to read for
as long as the book is around.
Email Randy Lander comments about this review. |
