Twilight Guardian #1 When a new comic series launches and has “Twilight” in the title, and has a picture of a teenage girl on the front, it’s almost asking for immediate disregard by the majority of comic fanboys. But we do live in a world where you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover. And I do wish that were the case here.
Twilight Guardian is the “pilot season” winning (fan-voted) new series from Top Cow Productions that revolves around a girl that seemingly has a mental disorder, perhaps OCD, who patrols a small residential area around her house. She has no powers or abilities, and gives no indication that she ever has, or possibly ever will, encounter or prevent crime.
The first issue has her detail her painstakingly boring routine, and follows her as it plays out. It’s not very exciting, but follows a very distinct rubric. I actually didn’t pick up on the OCD possibility, I later read about that online, but it makes sense now as an afterthought. There’s no explicit alluding to it, but she has made the same “snack” every night for who knows how long, and knocks on an ex-boyfriend's door for 35 minutes before deciding that he isn’t home.
I don’t know what else to say about the comic other than it just wasn’t particularly interesting to me, and nothing about it grabbed me and pushed me to want to continue reading. The art was very well done, but the writing was bland and without flair. Perhaps that has to do with the character’s mental state, since the majority of it is narration, but even so it’s not very engaging.
The ending leaves something a bit reminiscent of Kick-Ass, in a community of “Heroes”; without a revelatory turn, I can’t imagine myself finding much interest in this title.
Sorry Twilight Guardian didn't grab you. Maybe we'll get you next time. Anyway, I do appreciate the mention!
ReplyDeleteI'll be giving it another go. I had sort of dismissed it at first, but I think it was mostly cause my "pilot" pick, The Core, hadn't won.
ReplyDeleteAll that being behind me now, I did grab this #1 to give it a fair go, but I haven't sat down with it yet.
I feel now that I was a bit harsh in my review, which could be due to me allowing my personal preference to slip into the mix.
ReplyDeleteWhile I didn't care for issue 1, I'm certainly not cynical enough to dismiss it after a single read. I'll stay tuned for issue 2!
You guys should check out my review of the book I wrote for stashmycomics.com: http://www.stashmycomics.com/blog/?p=624
ReplyDeleteI also interviewed Troy for the site: http://www.stashmycomics.com/blog/?p=634
I've been a fan of Troy's for a few years now and I can see what you're saying but I urge you to keep reading, there's more to Troy's stories than what you might glean on the surface. If you roll up your sleeves and invest in the book, I think you'll find it to be rich and layered.