The Tower Chronicles: Geisthawk (Volume 1)
(Advance Reader Copy from NetGalley.com)
available for purchase from Amazon.com & Barnes and Noble
Written by Matt Wagner
Art by Simon Bisley
Published by Legendary Comics
There is a dirty feeling that comes along with reviewing a book that you received for free, but at the same time it is important when you are asked to review to be honest. As a result I have to state that this book simply was not up my alley. It contained more violence than I was wanting to read. Also the storyline didn't fit with what I was hoping it would be either.
The story is a typical grey-area superhero story. The main character lives in both worlds. He can't be called a good guy, but neither would it be accurate to say he is bad either. He seems to live for money instead of any moral values for most of the book. Also he doesn't seem to be approachable as a character. There was no moment where you feel you want to get to know more about him either. He just seemed like the typical vigilante character with a mysterious past. The past just never seems to be something that we are made to care about though. The book has a supernatural flavor about it (which slightly ties into his past it appears), which was the only interesting thing about it.
In the comic book market it can be hard to get a share of the dollars when you have the big two sweeping up most of that. When a new book is introduced it is important to create something that is either A) approachable or B) that will instantly be critically acclaimed. "The Tower Chronicles" is not going to achieve either of these in my opinion.The sad thing is if the writer had focused more on the side characters (such as the female cop) this book would have been significantly better and probably more approachable for new comic book readers.
One of the biggest sticking points for me with the entire book was that the artwork was horrendous in some places. The faces seemed distorted and some just seemed so wrong based on basic anatomy. This is in regards to human characters, as I am not judging any of the supernatural characters because some of their looks may have been intentionally done as so. There were times when the main character though appeared to have a bigger face than humanely possible. I am not usually one to judge a comic book based on its artwork because I can't draw to save my life, but when the artwork detracts from the story it has to be brought to the attention to possible other readers of the series. The artwork here seriously detracts from a pretty bad story already. These coupled together makes this a very hard read to get through.
I understand that Legendary Comics is a fairly new publisher, so I hope that they can step up their game with the next volume of the series or other series that are in the work. I would highly recommend that they try to step away from creating something that feels almost episodic to creating stories that interest the indie market of comics. Examine trends in lesser markets and try to build-up to those audiences instead of trying to create a superhero that simply does not work.
Until next time... Stay Optimistic!!!
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