COMIC BOOK REVIEW: Sons of Anarchy # 1
Company: BOOM! Studios
Writer: Christopher Golden
Artist: Damian Couceiro
I’ve always been skeptical about comic book adaptations of TV shows. They’re clearly built for a specific audience in mind possibly alienating casual comic book fans who know nothing about the television serial. There are exceptions though: Adventure Time, Buffy Seasons 8 and 9, Smallville Season 11 and Batman 66 have received positive feedback and don’t require previous TV knowledge. “Sons of Anarchy” is not in the same camp and is only required reading for fans of the show, but I’m not sure if they’ll like it either.
The story is pretty bare bones and is not at all interesting. A girl named Kendra finds out that the gang her boyfriend joined is evil – her words not mine – and Alex “Tig” Trager grieves about his daughter and gets into a bar fight, there is also the generic and evil gang mentioned before who like to cut and kill. The writer assumes that you’re familiar with the characters, so they aren’t given any moments of characterization – aside from Tig who cries, gets drunk and is therefore a rowdy drunk – so as someone who hasn’t watched the series I did not get to know these characters at all. I can’t share Tig’s grief because it was given away in random exposition and I don’t know Kendra’s horror because the comic doesn’t show what she witnessed. It’s pretty bad storytelling.
The art is decent, but not outstanding. Couceiro draws faces well and is very consistent throughout. The faces of the characters don’t change on every panel so it’s nice to see the art wasn’t rushed, but nothing here grabs your attention. It looks fine, but that’s about it.
Sons if Anarchy is the type of comic I expressed weariness off in my first paragraph. Inaccessible to new readers and is entirely skippable for fans of the show. If you’re a diehard fan of the TV show you may like this, and it has some solid art but I can’t recommend it to anyone else.
4 out of 10.
Thank you to BOOM! Studios for supplying us a copy to review
