by Dan
newuniversal: Everything Went White - Hi, my name is Dan and I'm a Warren Ellis whore. I'll read and (usually) enjoy anything Ellis does for any publisher. I get the Bad Signal e-mails and buy any trade with his name attached. All that said, even I was suspect of newuniversal, the reboot of Marvel's attempt to launch a new universe on the 20th anniversary of the Marvel U. The various series quickly folded and every issue is available in your local retailer's quarter bin. Marvel put Salvador Larroca on art, providing every possible hurdle to get over to read a book by my favorite writer.
The story starts out very Ellis-like with an introduction to various loser main characters and other lowlifes. The 'White Event,' which creates our new heroes, is interesting in and of itself, but Ellis gets a bit self indulgent with insanely boring pages about a archaeological dig and an incomprehensible explanation of the newuniersal thingamabobber.
Actually, the next five issues repeat the themes of the first and we never get more than some very generic character set-up and world building. And to be completely honest, it's not a very interesting world. That's right, I'm calling an Ellis book boring. Very boring in fact. Maybe a stronger, more interesting artist could have brought some of the big moments to life, but mostly the book fails because the writing just isn't engaging. One-hundred and fifty-two pages of minimal set-up is not, in this reviewers opinion, a good way to relaunch a universe. C-
4.20.2008
Can Marvel sucessfully revive two 80s "hits" today? (Part Two)
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
5 comments:
I'm gonna have to disagree with you on this one, Dan. I thought the way that Ellis set up the various characters' stories was quite interesting. I was looking forward to finding out what the archaeological dig was all about, the the "mini" ended before we got that far. I won't be buying this series in singles once it comes back in a couple of months as I think it reads better in whole chunks.
I thought Larroca seemed re-energized on this title and I'm disappointed that he won't be on the book when it comes back.
I'm shocked at this disagreement.
Larroca was better on this than his X-Men work, but he's still a terribly boring and bland artist to me.
Dan, did Ellis make you return the membership card to his fanclub?
I didn't dig the writing because the plot was too drawn out. Six issues to set-up the stories of four people is just too damn long.
Oh, and Chris, they did explain the archaeological dig. Third or fourth issue. It's all part of the big back story. And maybe that's part of my problem with this collection. It's too focused on back story and world building to bother with moving forward.
All that said, if Ellis didn't make me return my membership card after my comments on his JLA Classified arc (which makes this look like Watchmen) than I'm good.
Post a Comment