The Pickytarian

« Crisis on Infinite Blog Entries | Main | Subway Reading: Gotham Central & Stormbreaker »

January 12, 2005

Subway Reading: Breach & The Question

Breach #1 - I have seen and heard many comics described as "boring." Concrete and Jimmy Corrigan are the first ones that come to mind. Next time somebody accuses any comic book of being boring, I will be sure to present them with my copy of Breach #1. This book presented a thoroughly trite origin story of a completely generic superhero. The characters were unsympathetic ciphers. The pace of the story was unnecessarily and painfully slow. The blame for the low quality of this book does not lie entirely with the writing, however. The art was uninspired and uninteresting. The characters' likenesses were interchangeable. There was a disturbing tendency towards uneven faces, especially in the three-quarter views. The lack of detail, backgrounds, or line weight variation conspired with the dry and derivative nature of the story and the rumbling of the subway train to nearly lull me to sleep. I was standing up at the time, yet I found my eyelids drooping. I'm sorry to be so negative, but I the only justification I can think of for recommending this book to anybody is to make other comics look better by comparison. 0 stars.

Question #3 - I am glad that I stuck with this series. The plot, characters, and themes have now begun to take shape. The hero's somewhat hokey inner monologue has been tamed. I don't know if there have been subtle shifts in the clarity of the visuals or if I have grown accustomed to the unusual style, but either way I find the art to be much more readable. I particularly enjoyed the depictions of Metropolis' underground network of pipes, tunnels, and wiring. Rick Veitch writes a heck of a comic story, using surface-level tricks such as clever scene transitions to communicate the sub-text and thematic overtones. I suppose this book may have more appeal to fans of comic storytelling craft rather than fans of its characters (The Question or the Superman cast). I would place myself in the former group instead of the latter, and for that reason I give this comic 4 stars.

Posted by jdonelson_nyc at January 12, 2005 01:00 PM

Comments

Posted by: derek stukuls at January 16, 2005 10:09 PM