I Love Trouble #1

Writer: Kel Symons

Artist: Mark A. Robinson

Another new issue #1 from Image! Lately it feels like Image can do no wrong and each new series they've come out with has been critically acclaimed or a hit. I Love Trouble focucses on a young woman running away from her past. After a freak accident, she discovers she has a very unique power to 'teleport' almost anywhere.  With all of her friends and family expecting her to be dead, she decides to come back to her hometown and take advantage of her new found talent.

Unfortunately, all streaks must come to an end. I Love Trouble does not join the prestigious other Image #1's from the past year or so. Almost nothing in this comic worked for me. From beginning to end, there was very little substance to this comic and it came off as generic.

My main gripe is the characters. None of them felt fully established through the whole issue. Symons did manage to introduce alot of characters, but thats where it ends. I also couldnt work up any type of feelings for the characters, especially the main character.  Im sure in the series they'll go further into layering the character, but after reading issue 1 I have no ambition to stick around and see it. She starts off as a jerk, then she gets powers, and then she becomes a jerk with powers. They need to at least drop of a hint of humanity in the beginning to keep the readers around. All of the other characters are just generic cutouts of normal stereotypes. Skeezy boyfriend, rude gangsters, and even the reveal at the end was the generic reveal one would expect from a comic like this. 

The feel of the book was confusing and the dialogue didn't help. Browsing the art and then reading the first few pages, I was expecting more of a gritty take on the story. Even the character design led me to believe this was going to have more serious overtones. It all does feel like that, but the dialogue makes it feel more campy. Most of the dialogue were one liners and 'fun' back and forths. A scene that really made me scratch my head was the airplane scene. It was drawn beautifully and really matched the feeling of panic and dread. She uses her powers and is transported outside. While floating in the air by her lonesome, she then decides to say a witty one liner to herself. It completely took me out of the scene and made me second guess what type of book this is trying to be. The introduction to the gangsters is a tough one to handle. The jokes feel flat and really the whole scene didn't work as a whole.

Not all is lost though, the art and coloring are great. Ever panel is extremely detailed and the faces are full of life. There were some really good panels that showed "movement" per se with the teleportation that I enjoyed a lot. 

I'll stick with this comic until issue 2, because no comic should be completely given up on in its first 20+ pages and hopefully issue 2 will add a few key moments and reveals to save it from the cookie cutter story is currently is. The way I Love Trouble started though makes it very hard for me to recommend to any one else. Buyer Beware.