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RADIX #1
Mildly Recommended (5/10)
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Image Comics
Writer/Artists:
Ray & Ben Lai
Colors: Brian Reber
Price: $2.95 US/$4.50 CAN |
Reading Radix, I was reminded of the summer animated feature Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, except that Radix stopped making sense much earlier. Much like their work on Sigil, the Lai Brothers's storytelling
here is often hard to follow, and it doesn't help that they've taken on some
challenging structural elements, jumping around in time and pretty much keeping
us out of the heads of every character. Though the artwork is hard to follow, it
is quite pretty, and though the story is equally difficult, it does have
potential, but it's way too much work to get through what's presented on the
page to try and figure out what story the Lais are trying to tell.
Radix is military science-fiction, clearly influenced by anime and manga, with maybe a touch of James Cameron thrown in for good measure. It's a genre I'm quite interested in when it's done well, but it seems that every medium, from comics to film to television, has trouble perfecting it. Radix is another in a long line of "almost, but..."
projects for military science-fiction comics, or at least that's the way it
appears so far.
The selling point of this book for many is the chance to see the Lais do more artwork, as they were some of the promising up-and-comers from Crossgen. Their work here is actually more impressive than their Sigil work, with beautiful but
slightly less glossy and more readable color by Brian Reber. Their designs for
the characters are right out of every science-fiction comic or movie you've
seen, but while they may lack in originality they gain points for being detailed
and attractive. I also have to give them high marks for a couple great action
sequences, notably the use of telekinetic ability against an airborne attack.
Unfortunately, while the book
is beautiful, it shows all the signs of putting art first and story a distant
second. There's even a pinup page that interrupts the story for four pages for
no obvious reason. Though the storytelling is generally something a reader can
follow, something the Lais' work on Crossgen couldn't always boast, the way the
story is put together is unnecessarily confusing. After starting in the middle
of an undefined conflict, we jump to a quiet bedroom sequence and then to an
escape from some kind of psychic mental hospital. There are interesting story
elements here, but there's no kind of story, and none of the characters get
enough time to establish themselves. For that matter, the plot doesn't get any
kind of time either. While I'm all for a good mystery, a good mystery makes
sense in each chapter, raising questions at the same time, rather than making
the reader scratch his or her head wondering what happened.
Honestly, I'm inclined to
give this book a chance largely on the promising artwork and the fact that few
people are really doing this kind of science-fiction comics. However, it appears
so far as if the Lais have bitten off a bit more than they can chew as far as
the scope of the story, and readers should go in knowing that they're not
reading a finished comic so much as a pair of talented creators learning on the
job.
Email Randy Lander comments about this review, or discuss it on the Fourth Rail message board. |
