by Artemis » Sat Jul 29, 2006 1:31 am
Xena #1
...has potential. Tie-ins are often tricky, and Xena has some elements that could be handled better, but it also goes above par in several areas. Issue one is not, for example, a comicised retelling of episode one, which always bugs me when a tie-in does that. Instead it just leaps right into the traditional Xena style, as if this were an episode that never got made (probably because of visual effects limitation) - as someone who's seen plenty of Xena, I appreciate that. In any case, I think Xena is well-known enough that newbies wouldn't need the 'origin story' in order to accept her anyway.
The art is not perfect, but pretty good - if they stick with the current art team, they may reach as-good-as-it-gets soon enough. The likenesses aren't spot-on, but there's no mistakeing who's who (especially as the main characters all have their 'signature' outfits), which is pretty good in a medium where characters are normally designed, not duplicated from life. There's some instances where Xena comes pretty close to life; Gabrielle is a bit more generic; Joxer is pretty good; Autolycus is quite impressive in his cameo. Aside from representing the existing characters, the art is the kind of comic art I really appreciate - clean lines, bold colours, interesting composition.
In a recent interview, Dan Slott - who started out doing adaptation comics like Ren & Stimpy, before he moved on to his current sensational She-Hulk duties - said the best thing a writer in that position can do is get a huge stack of video tapes of the show they're adapting, and watch them back-to-back until they physically can't watch TV any more. I don't think the writer here has done that, or at least not enough yet - the story and dialogue are Xena-like, so it's certainly not a case of the writer not having done his homework, but there isn't quite that ring of authenticity about them. There's a slight feeling of 'generic fantasy adventure' to the story, and I had trouble hearing the voices in some of the spoken lines. But that may improve in time. The story does take advantage of the utter lack of constraints on scale - we have gods battling gods, a giant hydra tearing up a ship, winged warriors and amazons on pegasi battling in the sky, the whole deal. It's possible a bit more restraint might help it all feel more Xenaish - after all, it is possible to produce dramatic comic-book visuals without huge visual effects - but so long as they're going for the biggest spectacle possible, at least they are going for it.
So, all in all, it's a good issue one - could've been better, but as a TV show comic adaptation, it's a good debut.
Now you've got me thinkin' 
or something like that 
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