Writer: Steven T. Seagle
Artists: Becky Cloonan
Publisher: Vertigo
While I can see why some folks enjoy this title, the trade collecting issues #1-4 really wasn’t to my taste.
Adam Chamberlain, the protagonist, is the leader of a youth celibacy movement. He has a fiancée, Cassie, who is on a Peace Corps mission in Africa. At the beginning of this trade, Adam is expecting her return in just a couple of days, and of course is looking forward to their marriage and subsequent intimacy. But Cassie is tragically killed before she can return home, and now Adam struggles with his conflicted, anguished feelings and his Christian faith in relation to what has happened to his girlfriend and how he should deal with it.
The premise for this storyline isn’t bad. When I read the summary of the plot, it sounded interesting—and the summary still does. But upon reading this book, I was disappointed on a few levels.
The first and foremost disappointment here was the lack of characterization. Most characters in this book were very cookie cutter—for instance, the Christian characters were either corrupt, or needy and naïve. The anti-Christian characters like Adam’s sister generally adopted Goth or punk styles of dressing and acting, and denounced Christians as either fools or deceitful conmen. Because both aphorisms do exist in the real world, I don’t mind that these types of personalities were used in the book; what I do mind is the fact that I could find no exceptions to them here. None of the characters came across as real people to me—instead, they felt one-dimensional and trite.
Because of the lack of characterization, I never felt engaged in the story or what might happen next. Without strong characters in any type of story, the result is usually a lack of incentive to keep reading, and that’s exactly what happened for me here.
Ms. Cloonan’s art is unusual, which isn’t always a bad thing. But in this case, it’s a bit coarse in its depiction of the characters’ faces and body language. This coarseness is combined with an odd sort of animated look, and the two don’t blend well. The two styles feel as if they’re fighting for supremacy on each page.
This is not a horrible book; it’s just not for everyone. The story, as I mentioned, does show promise, and I could see Mr. Seagle improving the characterization. Hopefully that will, and has, happened in the title’s subsequent issues, because otherwise I just couldn’t read this book on a regular basis, if at all.
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