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A review by mwren707
Reborn by Mark Millar
3.0
Issue one of Millar's new book touched me with its tender depiction of a good person growing old through a life of pain. Its rumination on death and flashbacks of what makes a life well lived were really well done. I felt emotionally stirred and was ready for a series to delve into this tough subject matter through a sci-fi lens.
Sadly, the strength of issue one seemed to be ignored for the rest of this book. Millar seemed to skirt any real thought on the subject of death and instead deliver a shallow action-story.
There was very little character development in the script. The protagonist finds herself in a wonderland of an afterlife and never stops to question it. She's told that she is a prophetic savior, and so literally acts as if she can't die while stating verbatim that it's the correct course of action, because she can't die.
There was huge opportunity to play on her blind-faith of the rules of the afterlife being in total opposition to her compete lack of faith in her real life. The lack of depth is intentionally explained away in the end as "she does what's right. Always". The entire book revolves around her struggling to find and save her Husband, and upon doing so she immediately forgives him for taking a new wife and simply walks away from his life without a second thought.
Every character is boiled down to "good" or "bad" and there's no gray area or exploration of the moral definitions of our world and how they could translate to an afterlife. There's a whole world of complex emotion and ideas ignored throughout this title, and this ignored potential hurts the most.
The art, on the other hand is spectacular. Any real world building is carried on the back of the artwork, as the script does very little here too. There are some great panels of the two main characters traveling that make me wish for the story to linger in these locations, or mention where they are going and what they're seeing, but the script chooses to link together shallow action sequences with rather silent travel montage.
The editorial in the final issue of the volume says that they're looking to option this book into a TV series. It feels like this was a proof of concept action sequence to bring to pitch meeting with studio executives rather than a story trying to stand up on its own merit. I wish that Millar had tried to match the effort and talent that went into the artwork.
I just read the first 6 issues back to back, but will probably wait for reviews of volume 2 before continuing reading this series. Hopefully it begins to live up to some of the potential it had in issue 1.
3 stars because the art is that good.
Sadly, the strength of issue one seemed to be ignored for the rest of this book. Millar seemed to skirt any real thought on the subject of death and instead deliver a shallow action-story.
There was very little character development in the script. The protagonist finds herself in a wonderland of an afterlife and never stops to question it. She's told that she is a prophetic savior, and so literally acts as if she can't die while stating verbatim that it's the correct course of action, because she can't die.
There was huge opportunity to play on her blind-faith of the rules of the afterlife being in total opposition to her compete lack of faith in her real life. The lack of depth is intentionally explained away in the end as "she does what's right. Always". The entire book revolves around her struggling to find and save her Husband, and upon doing so she immediately forgives him for taking a new wife and simply walks away from his life without a second thought.
Every character is boiled down to "good" or "bad" and there's no gray area or exploration of the moral definitions of our world and how they could translate to an afterlife. There's a whole world of complex emotion and ideas ignored throughout this title, and this ignored potential hurts the most.
The art, on the other hand is spectacular. Any real world building is carried on the back of the artwork, as the script does very little here too. There are some great panels of the two main characters traveling that make me wish for the story to linger in these locations, or mention where they are going and what they're seeing, but the script chooses to link together shallow action sequences with rather silent travel montage.
The editorial in the final issue of the volume says that they're looking to option this book into a TV series. It feels like this was a proof of concept action sequence to bring to pitch meeting with studio executives rather than a story trying to stand up on its own merit. I wish that Millar had tried to match the effort and talent that went into the artwork.
I just read the first 6 issues back to back, but will probably wait for reviews of volume 2 before continuing reading this series. Hopefully it begins to live up to some of the potential it had in issue 1.
3 stars because the art is that good.