Posted on: July 8th, 2010 Comically Challenged: Scarlet #1
Portland, Oregon. Why is that place so vital to the comic book world? I think half of the world’s writers live there. Consequently, a hell of a lot of a lot of books are set in Oregon. Is it more creative than the rest of the country? It could just be all the delicious beer. It’s probably the beer. One day I’ll go and it’ll all make sense to me. But in the mean time? Scarlet.
Icon put out the first issue of Brian Michael Bendis and Alex Maleev’s creator-owned project this week. It’s about a girl, who lives in Portland (See? That intro had a purpose), who killed a cop in the opening panels. It would seem that my visions of grandeur regarding Portland may not be entirely accurate. There are a lot of shifty cops around there. I know this because I believe everything I read in a comic book. They’re practically historical documents. So part of you says, “Whoa, hey now. Let’s not go killing cops. I know a couple guys that are cops-they’re good people.” The other part says, “Streeeet Justice!” No? That’s just me? Whatever. Jerk.
Are fourth walls necessary? You know, when the characters in a movie, play, book, whatever seem to talk to you directly? They aren’t just sharing dialogue with another character; they are sucking you into the story. You are now a character. Do I like that? No. Not really. I feel like I’m not doing my part in helping the story along. Here these people are reaching out to me for help and I just have to stay in my seat and be quiet. I don’t want to bring this team down! I want to help you solve the mystery. All I’m saying is that if you break that fourth wall, you’re risking the possibility of me screaming at you like a 4-year old watching Nick Jr.
Scarlet breaks the fourth wall. You don’t really see that a lot in comic books. Sure, you’ll get your narration but you hardly ever get the idea that the character is conscious of you as a reader. Why do it now? It’s to play with your emotions and it’s actually pretty effective. You see, regardless of whether you admitted it or not, you do have that part of you that says ‘Killing police officers is wrong.’ But she did it. BMB and Alex Maleev obviously don’t want you to hate the protagonist; the book wouldn’t sell. So, instead they force you to be her friend. Start this book out by chatting up the pretty girl and you can overlook the fact that she’s a bit intense. I neither, A. Support the murder of law enforcement officers or B. Enjoy fourth walls being broken; but it worked in this case because I actually fell in love with Scarlet. She just wants to rid the world of corruption, crime and evil. It’s a comic book, of course that’s her goal. But she’s going to do it, not with a mask, but with a vest and wristbands…and guns.
Maleev’s art makes this book for me. The man knows how to capture emotion. There is a painfully high percentage of artists that can’t illustrate differentiation in a human’s expression. Maybe they can do a happy, a mad, a confused, and a sad but what about the gray area? What about the look of concern from a lack of personal remorse? Yeah, it’s a little trickier. Maleev can handle it. He knows it too. That’s why Scarlet’s life story is told in a 3-page collection of panel grids like a bunch of Polaroids. It’s just an outlet for the world to see how talented Alex Maleev really is.
Seems to me that the sum of the parts is actually greater than the book itself on this one. It’s the first issue, I’m not going to harp on it too bad but the storyline seemed unimpressive. A girl falls in love with a boy, he gets shot by dirty cops, she wants to rid Portland of corruption whilst avenging her dead lover. Brian Michael Bendis does what he does best-realistic conversation. I like the man’s work, I won’t lie to you. I wasn’t joking when I said that I fell in love with Scarlet. He made her so that she was my best friend. Maybe I don’t really care about the story or her vendetta against evil do-ers, but I do care about her and would like to see how she’s doing in a few weeks when the second issue drops. I guess that’s enough to keep buying the book. It is for me. It’s a creator-owned book, I’m a sucker for those anyway.