While we here at Adventures in Poor Taste didn’t review the first issue of Intersect, we still read it. Our thoughts on the comic were… less than positive though. Hopefully things are less foggy and make some more sense in the second issue. Is it good?
Intersect #2 (Image Comics)
You know, let’s forget about trying to have an opening summary like usual. It’s pretty much pointless when it comes to a comic like this. The basic deal: Jason/Allison and some person called The Kid are wandering around Detroit as the whole place is evolving.
In the first issue, I honestly couldn’t make heads or tails of what was actually going on. All I could tell was that the two people were running away from these strange monsters, while one person had a split personality and some people were changing into monsters. Honestly, that was gist of it and thankfully, this issue came with a recap that actually explained what was going on in the previous issue (it’s going to be a shame for people when they read the trade and actually remove that helpful recap). Because of that, this issue made far more sense than the previous since I could make educated guesses about what was going on.
I’ll have to take your word for that because I see no sound effects or text that indicates any other noise.
That being said, there’s not much to this comic. The characters are wandering around and looking for a way to escape Detroit after it had a Silent Hill-esque makeover. At one point some figure starts singing (or possibly screaming given the artwork) and then the two characters run into this preacher fellow, who gives them some vague advice. Then the comic just sort of abruptly ends with little headway or progression going on. It’s not particularly engaging storytelling, since the issue never feels particularly thrilling or even all that creepy (it’s more odd than anything else) and the characters just don’t have much to them that makes you feel for them in the situation. Plus, the story doesn’t feel like it advances or goes anywhere in this entire time.
That’s probably one of the bigger weakness to this comic: The characters. In concept, they are interesting or at least have the potential to become interesting. The main character is Jason, who is slowly transforming into a woman called Allison and seems to be fighting an internal battle to remain who he is. However, we know very little about him other than that and the same goes with the Allison personality — other than the fact that both entities are motivated to stay alive.
Then there’s the Kid, a mysterious individual growing out of a corpse. Again, we know very little about this person or why we should really care about them. These two characters are people that have interesting things happening to them, but lack real personality and are not that interesting in general. There’s also this preacher character, but he doesn’t say much that isn’t vague and trying to sound profound, and there’s possibly a villain out there causing all of the metamorphism happening, but we don’t see or learn anything about them either.
What do you, the audience at home, think?
Fawkes’ writing is a bit of a letdown. The pacing is uneven, constantly speeding up and slowing down, and the story flow and structure are off as well. It’s hard to tell when one scene begins and the other ends, or even when the setting or characters change, making it hard to follow or know if time has passed. The dialogue and narration are forgettable to unnatural sounding. No one really talks like a human and sometimes the exposition comes off as being forced, like when the preacher is introduced. Given the premise and story going on, the story should be creepy and nerve-wracking, but it honestly never feels that way. The comic feels so bizarre and out there it’s hard to be scared or even be put off by what you are seeing. Sort of like the ending, where this monstrous wolf thing appears out of nowhere. It’s like the story was suddenly interrupted by a wolf that walked into it by accident. Ultimately, I think the book is trying to be very vague and mysterious, like the previous issue, but the results so far aren’t working all that well and aren’t making for all that compelling of a tale.
The artwork is probably the biggest contributing factor to all of the faults and problems. It’s an interesting style to say the least, given the odd and otherworldly tone that oozes from it (it definitely worked back in that short story from
Nah, I think that’s just how the artist drew things.
Is It Good?
Intersect #2 makes more sense than the previous issue, but that’s not saying a lot. There are a lot of problems going on with the story, the characters, and the artwork that, even if they are intentional, do take a lot away from the overall experience and make reading the comic more of a chore to read than it should. At this point, Intersect is not recommendable.
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