by Randy Lander

NOBLE CAUSES: FIRST IMPRESSIONS #1 Recommended (8/10) Image Comics "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner...?" Pencils: Billy Dallas Patton Inks: Damon Hacker Letters: Shelly Helms "...By Its Cover" Pencils: Patrick Gleason Inks: John Wycough Letters: Ray Dillon Writer: Jay Faerber Colors: Rob Schwager Editor: C.B. Cebulski Price: $2.95 US/$4.95 CAN I'm not generally a fan of soap operas. I couldn't stand Melrose Place or Dynasty or Dallas, not even for what camp value they might possess. However, I am a fan of super-heroes, and especially super-heroes being done in ways they haven't been before, and that is what Faerber and his partners-in-crime have given us with Noble Causes. There are definitely elements of Melrose, Dynasty and series like it, but the addition of super-powers made it all a lot more interesting for me, and Faerber seems to be writing the entire book with a wink and a nod to the readers. We're being invited to take voyeuristic glee in the secrets the family is hiding, but at the same time they're being presented as real people with emotions and lives, just like anybody else who isn't a super-hero or a member of a rich and powerful family. This universal human connection is what will let readers relate to the book, even as they enjoy the unusual goings-on that make up the rest of the Nobles' existence. It's a time-honored tradition to bring in an outsider as a point-of-view character for the readers, and Faerber has done that with the introduction of Race Noble's fiancée. However, we don't meet that character until we're several pages into the book, and yet the characters and family are easy enough to understand. Faerber writes the book in a very approachable style, lacking the natural feel of dialogue that writers like Azzarello and Bendis are so renowned for but making up for that in the way that his dialogue expresses so much of what the reader needs to know. In the dialogue between Race and his parents, we learn a bit about all three and their relations, and within moments of meeting his sister and sister-in-law, we've gotten the rest of the family dynamic as well. As an introductory piece, this is a terrific issue. We meet all the characters and get the basics of their personality, we're given a couple of tantalizing hints about scandal that will no doubt play out later and we get a fully developed relationship between Race and his fiancée. I'm generally not a fan of the split-book format, and I do think the first story suffers a little from being relatively short, but the backup tale showing how Race and his fiancée met is a nice window into the family's relations with the outside, all the while fleshing out those two characters, who seem from this inaugural issue at least to be the main characters. Honestly, I was expecting a much more far-flung cast of characters, with a variety of siblings, cousins, uncles and all that sort of thing. While Faerber may have dealt himself a bit short on potential family interaction with relatively few characters, the payoff is that the cast is very manageable and easy to grasp for new readers, while still providing many potential character match-ups for dramatic purposes. On the art side, this book features art from several newcomers. Originally I had thought lead story penciller Billy Dallas Patton was mostly a blend of Adam Pollina and Stuart Immonen. However, looking at his work here I see elements that remind me of Alan Davis, Tim Levins and Nodwick creator Aaron Williams, among others. His style is very interesting and clear, with especially nice detail in faces. There are pages where the backgrounds sort of drop away, looking a little rushed, but in general he scores well there too. Gleason and Wycough, the pencillers on the backup story (and the first full issue, due in January), use a different style, but still a very attractive one. Their style is much more manga influenced, and I confess that I like Patton's work on the facial designs of the characters better, but I can't fault their storytelling or their attention to detail, and all in all I'd say Faerber has gotten himself some good artists to bring his visions to the page. It's not easy to tell from this issue whether or not I'll wind up loving Noble Causes or not in the long run. What I can tell is that there's talent and enthusiasm behind the project, and I'm convinced to at least check out a few issues and see what other secrets and scandals the Noble family has to offer. Email Randy Lander comments about this review.