Furious #1

by kanchilr1 on January 28, 2014

Writer Bryan J.L. Glass Artist Victor Santos

 

Introduction

 

Author Bryan Glass has something really interesting on his hand with the Furious comic book. The author has a really unique voice as proven by his Mice Templar comic book that got some rave reviews and wild amount of attention last year. Hopefully, readers will really embrace the new work not featuring established characters or mainstream talent, but a new idea and take on a genre that has been explored in depth in the medium of comics. Even with a voice as interesting as Glass, can he really prove that he has something interesting to say on a such an old and tired as the superhero genre? The idea of putting a superhero in the media spotlight is an overexposed concept that is overused and rarely works to the desired effect in superhero comics books the way that it should. Animal Man by Jeff Lemire has had some troubled with the same tropes that this series is attempting to use. There are a lot of factors riding against Glass in this issue, but he may be just the creator to prove the criticism void. How does he fare in this first issue?

 

Writing

 

In a comic built around one singular superhero, the voice of the main protagonist is the most important thing that can make readers interested in a character. Unfortunately, that is one of the main factors that is majorly lacking in Furious, and something that really makes the full comic book dip in quality. This is a genre flooded with so much material, that there has to be some sort of gimmick in order to make a book like this really stands out. Furious features a heroine whose life continues regressing throughout this issue. At a certain point it makes the individual uninteresting, and not someone worth following past one issue. Going forward, this series may have potential to improve, but there are some fundamental problems with both writing and the concept behind the idea. Money and time could be better spent on a another title from this talented creative team.

 

Art

 

Victor Santos has some fascinating artwork in this story. The penciller has an extremely fluid style of storytelling that pops off of the printed page. The artist proves that he can illustrate a talking heads scene, and pull off an extremely stylish one with relative ease. There is a lot of purely raw talent that is being harnessed in a manner that suits the tale comic book in a way that few artists could. In other words, there does seem to be a unique vision being explored within these pages. Facial expressions are very stylized, and lend a good amount of clarity to these pages. There is also a very interesting approach coloring that can bear heavy on the eyes. Many of the different interiors clash just because of the odd way that things here are framed. There is also a certain inconsistency within these pages that amount to fractured storytelling at times. There are a couple of pages that look completely different from each other.


Conclusion


Furious is a difficult comic book series to endorse due to the way it is written. Those that are interested in the series may have a reason to pick it up in order to see what these two creators do together. However, time could be better spent on a different project unless something drastic changes.

Our Score:

6/10

A Look Inside