izombie #1

izombie #1
Dead to the world
Written by Chris Roberson
Art by Mike Allred

Action Ash

Quick plot summary:
A girl named Gwen Dylan is a Zombie who has to eat the brains of the recently deceased each month or she will turn into a shambling mindless...well zombie. After consuming the grey matter of the cadaver, Gwen gets their memories, and gaining the memories of a man that has been murdered, she decides to catch the killer and avenge him. She hangs around with her friends Ellie, a ghost from the sixties and 'Spot' a were-terrier.

Having waited for this comic to come out for a little while, I was a little disappointed when I wasn't blown away and totally wigged out by its awesomeness. I am however eager to see what happens next issue, having faith that it'll get better once it warms up a bit. Anyway back to issue #1:

Mike Allred is a great artist, and so this book looks pretty damn good. The use of a darker colour palette than usual (by Mrs Allred) gives the story a tone that differs from some of his other work. That tone being more serious (just about) than his wacky superhero work on Madman and X-Statix.

The story is OK but didn't really keep me as interested as I expected it to. Obviously being the first issue it was trying to introduce me to the world in which it's set but it felt like it was trying too hard. This should of been disguised in the narrative better, and reading it, I didn't feel like I was in the main story yet. Like this was just a prologue and not important to later narrative development. Without giving too much away the supporting characters felt like they had been done before and probably better! Also the use of a corporation that hunts supernatural creatures as an antagonist is both bland and unoriginal. In some ways it's like izombie has come a decade too late. In the era of Buffy the vampire slayer and other such teen aimed supernatural fiction it would of fit right in.

Having said all this I will buy the second issue. I am eager to find out if izombie will get better as it goes along, as is my suspicion. Also I suspect I am being a little harsh, and should wait for some more issues to come out before slagging it off. I suppose the question of whether izombie is any good or not will be answered in time.

Three and a half mouthfuls of brain out of five

UPDATE: I've changed my mind, this score is too generous. I've given better comics the same. So it's now three mouthfuls of brain out of five.