MARKSMEN #1 (Cover Date: August 2011)
Story by: David Baxter and Dave Elliot
Art by: Javier Aranda & Garry Leach
Colours: Jessica Kholinne
Cover by: Tomm Coker
Publisher: Image Comics
Cover Price: $1.00
Book Summery: Sixty years ago the oil ran out and debts were called in. Civil war followed that splintered America into warring fiefdoms. New San Diego is a technocratic utopia that offers the last bastion of peace and prosperity, provided you live within its walls. Drake McCoy is its best protector. McCoy, an expert marksman, defends the city from the numerous threats in the wasteland outside the walls. But when the oil rich Lone Star state sends a powerful army to steal New San Diego’s energy technology, even Drake’s leadership and skill may not be enough to fend off the siege.
Image, I feel, really hit a home run when it came to trying to get the first issue into the hands of as many readers as possible. The price of just one buck for an issue that comes in at 32 pages is a great way to ensure that readers have absolutely no excuse for not picking up at least the first issue.
The plot of the first issue is one that mixes nicely together elements of a western and a post apocalyptic future to give us the foundation of the story. The story is based around a future that is really only a couple decades away for us in reality. The world’s oil supply has run dry and has caused a civil war in the United States that has decimated the once great super power. On the west coast New San Diego is a thriving state that has a huge reliability on technology. Not too far away, The Lone Star State has remained a user of what little oil is left but they have inevitably come to the limits of that usage, so hit on the idea of raiding NSD in an attempt to procure some the tech that has allowed NSD to thrive.
While this story is unfolding, Baxter and Elliot sew a fascinating story around the premise that makes the book a must read. I like stories set around the post apocalyptic future scenario but they can all too easily fall apart by not having anything relatable in the story. In this case by having the story revolve around a very real outcome to a near future event, it makes the book a cool peek at what may come.
Javier Aranda and Garry Leach provide some exceptional images. The high shots of San Diego post war care so real and visceral, they could almost be real. The use of real locations makes the book all the more real, like the use of the San Diego Convention centre as a military headquarters was shown in a very detailed panel was so cool. The books look was so beneficial to the overall quality of the book that it wouldn’t have been the same book without the strong visuals that were here.
This book is off to a strong start with both the price of the book and then with the quality of the material within. When this book goes on sale on the 20th, there is no reason at all for you to not to read it. Fans of sci-fi and action or just fans of good looking books need look no further than Marksmen #1.
Story: Overall 4/5
Art: Overall 4/5
Overall 8/10
I’m going to strongly disagree that this book is a home run on any level. As a retailer this is the kind of book I really don’t want to put into the hands of my customers and tell them that it is a great book, as it would dissolve my credibility very quickly. I bought extra copies of this book for my shelves based on the premise and that incredibly inviting price point, and after you get past the great price point (32 full color comic pages for only $1.00) there simply isn’t much left.
The opening blurb on the inside front cover is so poorly edited that I’m not convinced the editor’s native language is english. I’m a horrible speller, my grammar is atrocious, and even I was picking out mistakes. This was the opening spiel setting up the book with misspelled words and missing words. The action takes place at a Navel station. Bellybuttons had nothing to do with the book, and then there is a missing word which the eye might just gloss over, but if read carefully is obviously missing. One customer, who has worked for a paper, laughed out loud when I asked him to give it a quick glance to see if it was just me. It wasn’t just me.
Getting past that and into the meat of the story doesn’t help the situation. The story is filled with card board cut out archetypes that come across as being in surround sound due to their stereotypes. Towards the end of the first issue we get a fairly large reveal regarding the relation of two characters, but this important element is never hinted at, it’s not played up, it’s not developed, and then comes out of left field. Given time to develop the revelation would have possibly played as interesting, but as it was used it seemed wasted on this reader.
The art and the coloring are both fine with no major drawbacks, and even a few really nice rendered scenes that work quite well. The major hotty – possibe love interest comes across looking impossibly clean for the look and feel of this book, but that didn’t distract me while I was reading.
The theme is interesting and has merit, the story has some good points, and the writer and art team do have some nice ups. Possibly there was a rush to get as much info in one massive issue to hook readers, but all in all it just felt flat.
After falling in love with UNDYING LOVE, continuing to dig WALKING DEAD, and really enjoying WITCH DOCTOR, I was disappointed in this book. I would not recommend it as a purchase.
Thanks for the counter point Shawn, I appreciate it.
I have to agree with Shawn… I pre-order all my comics, so I’ve already pre-ordered the majority of a mini-series prior to reading the first issue… which means it’s EXTREMELY rare that I don’t buy the rest of the series. This is one, however, where I immediately removed it from my pull list after having read the first issue.
The story really did fall flat, and the characters were… really “cardboard” is the best way to describe them. The whole thing with the dog just felt like an afterthought that got tossed in to add some depth, and it just didn’t work at all. It mostly just made me feel like I was reading a bad Judge Dredd serial.
The art was not, I suppose, horrible, but it certainly wasn’t that good either. There was nothing about it that really stood out to me at all… It was worth $1 just to know that I’m not really missing out on anything more.