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Wow . . . I'm reviewing comics again! Real paper comics, not internet ones! It's been a while. Special thanks (or maybe curses...) go out to my dear editor Sheryl for sending me a package of Indie comics to review. These will keep me in fodder for a few months!
There are times when it seems a little unfair to give a comic such a negative review. I mean, some comics are just inherently bad, such as those published by Kiss Me Comix. Then there are comics which are just, well, kinda lame. Darkspire 2151 is one such comic. It's not bad enough to get me ranting, but it's still a disappointing little book.
The intro to this comic reads: It is the year 2151. The world as you know it has been plunged into Hell. The is no Hope. There are only the Corporations. They are your friends. But something much darker dwells below the surface. An ancient evil awakes. Welcome to the 22nd century.
Pretty much, the setting seems to be a cross between Shadowrunesque cyber punk and Vampire: The Masquerade. The world economy collapsed, nations reorganized, vampires developed synthetic blood to feed off of and started taking over governments, corporations, and whatever else they felt like "sinking their fangs into". We learn all of this thanks to the helpful protagonist/narrator, who then says "Who the hell am I? I've been called by several names through the years. A while back I got stuck with a street name..." This is at the end of a page. Before I turned the page, I had a little guessing game with myself. What is this man's street name going to be? Killer? Dark Stalker? Night Slayer? Night Bane? I expected it to be something dark-and-cheezy. I was not prepared for what greeted me on the next page...
"Gothic Wolf". In big, fancy font no less. As if it makes that less silly. Upon reading that, just a few pages into the comic, I gave up all hope of this being a halfway decent comic. I cannot imagine anyone ever giving someone the street name of "Gothic Wolf". Wolf, sure. Maybe even Dark Wolf, Night Wolf, Black Wolf, Wolf Man, whatever. But Gothic Wolf just sounds like a bad on-line handle that some teenage Goth-wannabe would give himself to try to sound kewl.
Expectations much lowered, I continued reading the comic, glad that I didn't shell out the $3.50 cover price for it. The rest of the comic tries to interest the reader with a couple fight scenes and setting up a plot about vampires doing bad stuff in New Orleans. Given the fact that our protagonist is huge, tough, scruffy looking, has wolf in his name and there's a wolf on the cover of the comic, one can't help but wonder if this series is going to lead into a World of Darkness/Underworld style story of vampires versus werewolves (lycans, lycanthropes, wolfmen, whatever).
The latter half of the comic introduces us to a bunch of less-distinct characters who will apparently be players in the story. Each of them seems to have some sort of dark, brooding anti-hero sort of thing going on. They are all also male. If the first issue is any indication, one should not take the "For Mature Readers Only" label as an indication of nudity and sex. There are only a couple of women seen in this comic, they're in the background, and NOBODY is naked. The violence isn't very graphic, either (not compared to say, Kill Bill moves or Blade of the Immortal comics), but the language is a bit strong.
Oh, did I mention that even though the world is plunged into Hell and there is no hope, there are still nightclubs and people still line up desperately to get inside? That's right, Hell is a nightclub. Each person hears the music that they hate the most, and all the drinks are watered down. Or something. Darkspire 2151 does NOT do a good job of conveying a sense of doom-and-gloom despair.
This book also features a preview of book 2, in which we are introduced to a couple more characters, one of them who looks like he was rejected from Sandman or KISS, take your pick. Another one goes by the name of "Poe." This comic has almost all the Goth stereotypes covered!
I haven't yet mentioned the art. Let me say that it is weird. Also kind of bad. Not horrible, but bad. Proportions are a bit off, some poses seem awkward, etc. Most of this is pretty easy to overlook, however. There is one glaring, annoying thing, and that is that everyone's eyes are too big, and not in an anime sort of way. This makes everyone look kind of wide-eyed psychotic. Then again, maybe they ARE all crazy.
I cannot in good conscience really recommend this book to anyone without coming off as insulting. Honestly, the only people I can see enjoying a comic like this is the aforementioned Goth wannabes who name themselves things like "Gothic Wolf".
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