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NIGHTSIDE #1
"Ikkyu's Skull Part 1: Hostile Takeover"
Recommended (7/10)
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Marvel Comics
Writer: Robert Weinberg
Artist: Tom Derenick
Colors: Avalon Studios
Letters: Jon Babcock
Editors: Mark Powers
Price: $2.99 US/$4.50 CAN |
Though many were fans of his run on Cable, Weinberg's writing really never captured my attention, and I didn't expect much from Nightside as a result. However, some very strong artwork and a deft application of digital color give the book an exquisite visual style, and while the elements of the story are quite familiar, they remain intriguing nonetheless. Nightside has some of the same elements that have made Blade (the film),
White Wolf games and Anita Blake novels so entertaining, and though I sometimes
find Weinberg's style to be a little dry and straightforward, I have to admit to
being pleasantly surprised by the first issue of this creator-owned (for the
most part) series.
One of the problems Weinberg faced with Cable was being saddled with a very dull protagonist. Not so Sydney Taine, the lead in Nightside, who is a terrific combination of femme
fatale and private detective, mixing Emma Peel with Buffy the Vampire Slayer and
a touch of Sam Spade to provide a sexy and capable protagonist. Her compatriot,
Ape Largo, gets less screen time to develop, but is likewise an entertaining
character.
Weinberg has set up a great
first issue, as the murders (seemingly directed by each crime boss against
another crime boss) allows him to lay out his premise and some of the major
characters without it seeming too much like naked exposition. He also sets up
the story such that Sydney's assets and attributes are laid out just as clearly.
Her social skill, her combat prowess and her reputation are all established in
the way she deals with the various obstacles in her way.
One of Weinberg's weaknesses,
at least to my eyes, has been a clumsiness with dialogue. His dialogue is always
straightforward, but it doesn't have much in the way of subtlety or reality.
There's not much wit or humor to be found, nor is there much of an edge, it's
just somewhat flat. I found that to be the case here as well, and found myself
wishing for a liberal sprinkling of curse words or a few David Mamet/Aaron
Sorkin style exchanges just to spice things up and make the book feel a bit more
involving.
The real star here, and the real surprise, was Derenick's artwork. I've seen a fair bit of his fill-in and pin-up work, and have been generally unimpressed, but his work takes a leap forward in these pages. Gorgeous character work, with really nice detail on faces, mixes well with imaginative background and great storytelling and action choreography for an engaging and beautiful example of artwork. The digital coloring effect (skipping inks) seems to have been used here, and Avalon Studios has given us an example of that work which is more like Origin and less like the muddy X-Treme X-Men.
All in all, Nightside isn't likely to wind up on any of my
favorites list, or to have any sort of resonance once it has concluded its run.
But as something new from Marvel, something different in tone and style from a
lot of what they're doing, it's pretty impressive, and I'll be interested to see
where it goes from here.
Email Randy Lander comments about this review. |
