In honor of SXSW, just about the biggest technology and media conference in the galaxy, this week’s column will spotlight the best and worse new #1’s in their digital format. (As I’m on a plane headed to Austin, I missed my much beloved trip to the comic book store for print editions!) Let’s see if the digital editions, presented by the good folks at Comixology, can hold up to the bagged and boarded treasures we geeks know and love.
First up is Image Comics Lost Vegas #1
, from writer Jim McCann and artist Janet Lee. This sci-fi extravaganza is the story of Roland, an intergalactic card sharp and hustler, finally getting his comeuppance. Captured by the loan sharks who hold his outstanding debts, Roland is held captive on the giant space casino Lost Vegas, as he works to slowly pay down a debt that can never be truly erased. Roland, ever the arrogant sort, has a plan to escape with the help of some of his fellow coworkers cum inmates. His voiceover – a long winded, jargon filled conversation directly with the audience – is a little difficult to follow, but it sets the mood well, establishing the hustler’s creed of self before all others, giving the story a bit of an Ocean’s 11-meets-The Great Escape-in -outer-space vibe. Roland’s galaxy is certainly a polyglot, filled with all manner of unusual creatures, but there is little overtone of enmity between them, avoiding the common trope of addressing racial or cultural issues with the metaphor of disparity between alien beings. Here, the servants wear collars that digitally “mask” them as generic humans, not considered offensive or inferior by the aliens and other human whom they serve, but simply as blank slates. In fact, the only prejudice in a place like Lost Vegas is between the wealthy and the poor, with the marked xenophobia being the fear of the have not’s, or at least of becoming one. Roland intends to change his luck, with the help of his “friends” but not to their benefit; he’s character with an unusual lack of moral center but still a certain charm. Once can palpably sense that’s he’s not done dropping a few pegs. The digital edition, meanwhile, is stunning in it’s HD format, with Lee’s work well displayed. What it gains in visual glory, though, it lacks in lettering quality. Good lettering can make or break a story, and the details of the complicated escape plot are blurry because often the words themselves are unclear, or entirely too small. Otherwise, the science fiction lends itself well to the glowing iPad screen.
The technological presentation isn’t a hindrance for Oni Press’ Helheim #1, though you wouldn’t think high-tech would be one’s first choice when reading a magical story of Vikings, ghosts and swordplay. Rikard is the hero of a small band of warriors set to protect a village from Groa, a mysterious evil witch, and her vicious thugs. It seems that Rikard is beset on all sides. His father Kirk, a formidable warrior in his own right, has issues with Rickard’s lady love Bera, who seems to need protecting from that same evil witch. With Groa’s minions breaking down the walls of their village and literally rising from the grave to destroy them, Rikard is slain as his father turns betrayer, offering up Bera in exchange for the village’s protection. But Bera isn’t one to be trifled with, and it turns out that the mysterious disappearance of the village dead in these attacks is Bera’s doing, and not Goa’s work, as was suspected. Kirk learns just how far Bera is willing to go when he meets the reanimated patchwork corpse of his son, brought to life like a magical Frankenstein’s monster, only to fight for Bera’s safety. Joelle Jones’ artwork here is breathtaking in digital HD, and represents a frozen and bloody pre-civilization with a crisp and violent style. Underneath the bloodshed and combat, the driving point in the story is the unusual rivalry between the “evil” (and unseen in the first issue) Groa and the morally questionable, decidedly sorceress-like, Bera, and it will be interesting to see how these two characters develop.
The digital format h
olds up well in the decidedly NSFW (and bluntly titled) Sex #1, from Image Comics and creators Joe Casey and Piotr Kowalski. Simon Cooke is the former superhero known as The Armored Saint, now retired after the loss of someone he loved. Returning home to Saturn City to run his multi-billion dollar corporate empire, he is an empty man, living him with a certain sadness as his city reverts to its former corrupt and decadent ways. Crime is on the rise, and certain areas of town are worse off than ever. But Simon can’t focus on being a good guy anymore. He’s drawn in to the seedy sexual underbelly of his city, and the former enemies he encounters there may be more than this retired hero can stand against. This is another comic that loses a lot in the lettering, and it may not be specifically the digital format that does the damage here. Letterer Russ Wooten has included some off-putting, atypical color coding in his work, and the slightly washed out color palette of the comic overall makes it difficult to understand what, if anything, he’s trying to accent. The art is certainly not G-rated here, but it’s an interesting exploration of the failures of heroes, and the unusual nature of what happens when heroes take off the mask.
The heroes of the Marvel Universe get in on some serious digital action this week, in more ways than one. Marvel has begun its latest big-time crossover event with The Age of Ultron #1. Ultron, for the unfamiliar, is an A.I. created by the Avenger Henry Pym, the Ant-Man. Ultron is not too fond of humans and has developed a physical form for itself that resembles an insectoid Iron Man. Opening this tale, Hawkeye is on a rescue mission: he must free Spider-Man captured by some thugs. As New York City is conquered by the robotic menace, the rag tag remnants of the Avengers hide out in the crashed wreckage of the S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier. The book is a touch more violent that some other Marvel books, depicting several rather bloody deaths at Hawkeye’s arrow point. It’s also an unusual starting point to the story, as we have no idea how Ultron has taken over the city or crushed the Avengers so handily. That they are crushed is without doubt, made especially evident when Hawkeye and Spidey return to find that an untrusting Green She-Hulk, Luke Cage and Tony Stark aren’t ready to let them back into the fold just yet, while an utterly crestfallen and badly beaten Captain America is wallowing in defeat. This is a much darker tone than we’ve seen in other high adventure Avengers series, and the crossover will need to carry it across several books to make it a standout among the never ending multi-title events that the Big Two comic companies like to throw at us.
Lastly, there’s an odd bit of digital business from DC and Ame-Comi, with the print version of Ame-Comi Girls #1, a collection of the first three chapters of DCs alternate universe digital only comic. Some years ago, Ame-Comi originally created these anime inspired alternate versions of the female charaters we know (and even some of the men, as there IS no Superman or Batman in their universe, and even the Joker is a woman), and then DC took up the online telling of their exploits. These stories have never been particularly deep, lending themselves to the all-action style of lots of anime cartoons and comics without much character development. The female heroes are also highly sexualized, sporting body proportions that defy the laws of physics almost as much as their various superpowers do. The print edition also seems to start in the middle of a larger story arc, even though it’s labeled #1, and there is a lot of explaining that just isn’t done. Overall, this is campy fun, there’s not much serious content in any of these tales and the ladies could use some character development. (And maybe some pants.)
