Huck #1
Writer by Mark Millar
Art by Rafael Albuquerque
Image Comics
When a writer with the credentials of Mark Millar launches a new character, in a new title, comic book fans have to be at the very least curious.
So I suspect Huck #1 will sell well enough, with, or without my humble opinion. Then again, I write reviews, so read on friends.
Huck #1 was OK.
But that’s the problem, it was just OK.
Sure Huck is interesting enough as a character. He was after all left on the steps of an orphanage, where he was cared for, growing into a mild-mannered young man with a propensity for doing good deeds.
Huck does a good deed daily (there is no indication he was ever a Boy Scout) for the small town people around him. He is able to do some rather extraordinary things based on super strength, and super speed.
Now not to suggest the story line is borrowed, but wasn’t a certain alien child named Jor-El left as an orphan in rural America where he grew up with super powers, and ended up doing good deeds?
In the case of Huck, his good deeds have been pretty much a local thing, and the community has kept what he can do a secret.
That is until new folks show up, and being true to current human nature, they call the press with Huck’s story.
That wraps up the first issue, with Huck looking out his window knowing his secret in no longer secret.
I’ll grant you Millar’s telling rings a bit truer, or more plausible than the guy who now wears an ’S’ on his chest, but that supers’ story was written in another era too.
For Huck to be worth the monthly cover price, Millar has to start to give readers something fresher and more interesting than this issue.
As I noted Millar’s story is OK. Rafael Albuquerque’s art is OK. But OK just doesn’t inspire one to mark a title as must read.
Orphan Black: Helsinki #1
Written by John Fawcetter, Graeme Manson, Heli Kennedy and Denton J. Tipton
Art by Alan Quah
IDW Publishing
Orphan Black is one of the better sci-fi series on TV these days, which is saying something as there are more good shows of late; Continuum, Defiance, Dark Matter and several others.
It helps as a Saskatchewan boy that the star of Orphan Black, Tatiana Maslany, is from the province’s capital. That notwithstanding I peg her as my favourite female lead on TV right now in part for handling a rather diverse roster of ‘clone’ parts.
But this a comic review, so I best get on point here.
I have the Orphan Black TPB from IDW in my ‘must read’ file, but when OB: Helsinki #1, the first issue of a new mini-series I couldn’t resist.
The story is typical of the franchise, mystery behind look-alike sisters set against a backdrop of seedy science. You can’t expect anything else, since that is what the TV series is, and a comic title can’t stray too far off the same course.
The key is whether the story line as it develops will add anything meaningful to the greater mythos, and one issue in that is impossible to tell.
If you are a fan of the television series, grab this, if not, it may not be the best bet, because this story is made more interesting by knowledge of what the series on the tube is doing story wise.
