Originally published on Patreon
I was really looking forward to this book. I've been a fan of Black Adam since he was a part of the Justice Society run written by Geoff Johns, and have enjoyed the character across multiple books for years. As such, him getting his own limited series is something that had me excited. Unfortunately, this first issue left a poor taste in my mouth.
The book opens with Adam in his mortal form sitting in a meeting with the US government, answering questions. And it doesn't take many panels for things to feel a bit iffy, as we're bombarded by tech speak and acronyms galore so that we're left lost as to what's happening. But, perhaps this is a deliberate choice, telling us that Adam himself isn't really following what's happening.
The meeting is inter-cut with flashbacks to Adam fighting Darkseid, and killing him. It's them revealed that it was some sort of construct created by Desaad, and that it has infected Adam with some kind of deadly necrosis and burns. Back in the meeting, Adam eventually gets tired and just walks out.
The action then cuts to a body of a Kanhdaki man in Washinton, who it's revealed was the head of the rival political movement against Adam. hiss death could look bad for Adam, so he has his people find out his last movements, which leads Adam to meet Malik Adam White, a junior doctor who is one of the most insufferable people around.
His initial introduction is quite good, breaking the news to a white supremacist that his life is being saved by a Black man, but he quickly turns into someone who's constantly quoting movie lines, making bad jokes, and ending sentences halfway through and jumping onto completely unconnected points. Half of his dialogue felt broken and disjointed, and completely off-putting. He came across like a film where the audio track was having issues and kept jumping around and jumbling everything. That, coupled with him seemingly trying to pressure his best friend into being a sexual partner despite her telling him no repeatedly ended up with me hating him by the end of the issue.
And here's the big problem, he's the guy this book looks to be centring around, as Black Adam is dying, and he plans to pass his powers on to Malik because he's a descendant of his. Great.
This story isn't necessarily bad, and sounds interesting, but the execution of pretty much everything in this first issue put me off. I hated the dialogue because it was either technobabble, half sentences, or bad one-liners. The character of Adam felt like it was someone else, and not the Black Adam I'd come to know. The new character of Malik was just terrible. Unless there's a drastic shift next issue this is going to end up being a painful twelve issues to read.
The artwork, provided by Rafa Sandoval looks decent, and the action scenes are very well drawn. Adam looks great here, and you can see the pain and stress he's under whilst fighting the fake Darkseid, and can see the toll its taking on him. But, decent artwork can't save a series if the writing just isn't there; and I don't think Christopher Priest did anywhere near a good enough job.
Maybe I'm judging too harshly, and I'm hoping this is a first issue jitters and that things will improve. If they don't, though, I'm not sure how I'm going to make it through another eleven of these.
This article, and many others, can be read a month early on my Patreon for as little as $3 a month!
No comments:
Post a Comment