Sometimes people send me comics to review. I really don't do it often. I don't feel comfortable mostly. Perhaps because when you agree to do so, you feel obliged to only be positive, and I don't like to censor myself. But once in a blue moon, I agree and I try to do my best, for the creators and for its potential readers. This is one of those times.
Genecy #1 is the brainchild of writer Gerald Cooper who hopes to tap into all the cool, bold comics and science fiction he's ingested to infuse his comics with the same kind of energy. He describes Genecy as "Conan becoming the Silver Surfer after being a slave on Apokolips", and he successfully presents that brief. The action starts on a ship in outer space, and over the course of 34 pages of story, lands on a fantasy-ish planet, fights undead demons, and meets a god who turns him into his avatar. It IS big, bold and brassy, with lots of splash pages making the events as huge and epic as possible. And had all this been drawn in a faux-Kirby style (like, say, Godland or Jersey Gods), it would have been incredibly cool. The art on this first issue is actually by DC regular Eddy Barrows (soon on the relaunched Nightwing) and while he does some things very well (the undead army, the environments, the alien desigsn) and is competent in all other respects, it seems to me the story demanded something more (or other). Or perhaps I'm reacting to the overuse of special effects slathered on over the art. The colors (or really, lighting and texture effects) too often cover up the art, and the lettering in a multitude of fonts is hyperactive and breaks the flow of the story, sometimes disappearing in the art.
From the second issue, the art will be handled by Diego Bernard who is credited with lots of work for Dynamite and has a lot of cheesecake art on the web. From what I've seen, I may actually prefer his work to Barrows, but let's hope his art won't be as tricked up. To me, Genecy is like a band with some good lyrics, but I can't hear them because the instruments are too loud. In music, that shows a lack of confidence. In comics, I wouldn't presume to say, Cooper would do well to dial the special effects back down and let the story and art speak for themselves.Because there IS a story here, and a whole world to explore. Cooper's almost got a kitchen sink approach to his superhero/SF/fantasy universe and I'm actually interested to see how Raknirod (the god)'s relationship with his avatar will be different from, say, Galactus and the Surfer. And how does the devilish Rathgar fit into this cosmology. Cooper's opening chapter feels like a legend told at the temple gates and it could go pretty much anywhere. There's the obvious strand of using his newfound power to free his people from slavery, but there's also his ultimate relationship with the antagonistic Rathgar and whatever agenda the godly Raknirod might have. I'm also intrigued by the mirror-like Dome of Raknirod, which feels inspired by Vernor Vinge's Across Realtime to me.
How does this world WORK? Presumably, Cooper has a number of stories in his back pocket, as he aims for Genecy to be an ongoing series. At this point, I'd say it shows a lot of potential even if I'm unconvinced by its aesthetics. The actual premise of the book will likely be made clearer in #2. So if you're interested in helping this project along (and independent comics do need all the help they can get), you can order a copy HERE.And now I go back into my cave of vintage comics and Doctor Who commentary until someone gets me to do another review-on-command...
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