After commenting on the digital first issue I read last week I pretty much immediately went out and bought the trade, which I then consumed toute suite. I was so psyched, given the such resoundingly positive critical reception it's recieved since its debut and my quite favorable reaction to what I had read already. It was almost like I was setting it up to fail. I didn't love it like I thought I was going to, I didn't even really enjoy it all that much. I frankly found it tedious after the first 3 issue arc ended and it went on a 3 issue series of digressions. Are these all supposed to be connected somehow? Is this just setting up something bigger and patience is order?
Mainly I have a low threshold for gobbledygook and this book is so damn full of it... enamoured with it even. Much of it is to establish the unique and fantastic (and to be sure it is uniquely fantastic) but you can't yst keep throwing this shit out there, especially in narrative where 50% of it is inconsequential, eventually you have to make it feel lived in. There has to be a purpose to this copious amount of alien culture and education otherwise all this narrative obsessing over minutiae is kind of wasting a lot of time when the art (and there's nothing but fabulous art here from Simon Roy, Farel Dalrymple, Brandon Graham, and Giannis Milonogiannis) can do much of the heavy lifting. Without the constant narration this would be a largely silent book.
The trade collects 6 issues for $10 so it is a freaking bargain and despite my serious issues with it (issues I'm not convinced aren't actually purposeful) I do see its creative uniqueness and will stick with it through a second trade.
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