Rooster Jack vs. The Mermaids
A constant danger of this reviewing business is that I’ll occasionally fall into the “what should have happened” trap. You know, where I think a story could have been better if it had gone a different direction or had a few different parts, leaving aside the issue of reviewing the actual comics. Well, with that in mind: you guys are doing it wrong. It starts off with a really nice intro and a character synopsis; both useful things considering the collection of adventurers involved. The first page of the comic is also excellent, as we see the rooster claw followed by Jack making his way out of hiding, declaring things to be safe even though he’s last to arrive. From there the comic seems like somebody set a timer up and told them they had X hours to finish the whole thing. It has the feel of one of those books that was rushed out for a con which, while it’s always nice to have new stuff for a con, the comic will live past the con and it’ll be seen as rushed after the fact. The break between page two and three was confusing, as they were looking for a boat one minute and then facing a giant crystal wall holding the ocean the next. Maybe they walked there, although you’d think you could see a thing like that coming. Actually, on close examination of the page I see what might be a path, but it’s leaving too much to the imagination. Anyway, the mermaids get angry when one of the crew steps on a skull that’s outside the crystal wall, they somehow chase the group to an opening (even though they don’t seem to be able to break through the wall, so what’s the rush?) , and the crew battles a giant octopus. That scene is pure chaos, and not in a good way. I’m generally against spoilers, but as I’m making a point here you can look away if such a thing will offend you. They fight, get smacked around, and run away. I have no idea what the point of this was or why the mermaids were basically evil cheerleaders the whole time. Did they win before they ran away? Look, these guys have built a solid, interesting cast of characters. Let them breathe a bit! Put this story in a 20 page comic instead of cramming it into eight pages and it would have been a whole lot better. The frustrating thing is that I like Adam’s sense of humor as well as Ben and Laura’s artwork; it’s a good team with a potentially great story. It’s just not a story that’s meant to be crammed into this small of a space. If, on the other hand, you wanted to make an 8 page story for each of the adventurers to flesh out their history and personalities, that would be something I could get behind… $1.50
