Aftershock Comics 2017
Written by Cullen Bunn
Illustrated by Juan Doe
Lettered by Rayne Hill
I am a fan of Cullen’s his talent, his creativity and imagination not to mention is skill at weaving a story with some excellent characterisation. I know there are some people out there who don’t the whole concept of a build up but we are talking about a story that is confined to an Ark and there’s no going anywhere. So that means that there has to be time spent building the characters so that we get to know them. It’s hard enough of as it is seeing as how most of these are considered monsters, though there are exceptions with creatures like the Unicorns.
So call me a weirdo or whatever but this is how things are supposed to go you introduce all these new and wondrous creatures and we need to get to know their personalities. I like how Cullen is setting the dynamic on the Ark, those with power, those who want power and those just content to sow the seeds of chaos. How they weave in and out in voiced opinion here and there while accusing others or defending themselves the characterisation is incredibly good.
We kind of got the back story on Shrae last issue and why he was chosen to take those creatures God deemed unworthy of saving. While we haven’t gotten the best of looks at the family and the whole dynamic there we’ve gotten a good start and here we see him interacting with the beasts below. I love that interaction too because while Shrae is doing his best to ensure they all live they have no respect for a human regardless of what he’s trying to do. From veiled threats to outright hostility we see how much each side can take and to be fair both sides are doing things that and yet kind of backing down at the same time.
The tension is something you could cut with a spork and that we can almost feel it in the air as heavy as the densest fog is an attribute to Cullen’s skill at writing.
My biggest complaint is when interior artwork is not good or doesn’t match what the story is about. No offense to Juan intended but his work is so below par of what we should be seeing in these pages. The work feels like it should be in a bad children’s book. We should be seeing stuff with this crystal clear linework and an attention to detail that will blow us away. There are so many creatures who could be brought to life in such dark and creepy ways instead we get some watered down version of Where the Wild Things Are. The human faces are plainly round with barely any attention to eyes, nose or mouth.
I want to be a huge advocate of this book because the idea behind is beyond stellar. It’s got that bite that we want, literally and figuratively, the hook that brings a reader back and the honestly the whole dynamic is superb. There are characters that jump out at the reader and makes you want to know more about them. Aside from the prisoners who are really nothing more than window dressing and yes that includes Janris we’re scratching the surface of these characters here.
This is the kind of book that I’ll stop reading because of Juan’s artwork and I hate to say that but I’m putting it out there. There just isn’t enough work to justify continuing something that is so flat, so uninspired and unimaginative.