COMIC BOOK REVIEW: Overtaken #1
Aspen Comics’ Overtaken takes a somewhat familiar plot and adds a bit of flair on it with the story-telling and some twist. Written by Frank Mastromauro, with illustrations from Marko Laurenzana and colors by Wes Hartman, the comic tackles the vastness of space, the warmth of a couple’s home and the suspense and adventure of alien abduction in between.
The comics seems to be about some grand alien wars and strife. There’s an ongoing survival of the fittest going on and all of this would connect to the lives of Will and Jesse Harden. The couple have just moved from Chicago to Turtle Creek, MN for Will’s journalism job and also so that they could live near Jesse’s parents. It’s a small, country town where the couple could live peacefully and happily but things change sooner than they’ve expected after Jesse gets involved in some incident by the end of the comic.
Laurenzana and Hartman’s works here are just stunning. I loved how there’s a distinct difference between the galactic warfare scene in the first few pages and the country lifestyle of Turtle Creek, and the contrast between the strife and bloodshed versus the comfort of home with one’s partner. Laurenzana’s artwork’s good enough but it’s still complemented by Hartman’s colors that provide such vibrancy and realism to what’s supposed to look cartoonish such as the vastness of space and different alien races hacking and slashing each other. I particularly liked how the opening pages nailed the sci-fi ambiance while the scenes with Will and Jesse had that human feel.
My concern with Overtaken #1 though, is how everything’s being set-up and the pace it went on after flipping through the first parts. Seeing the first opening panels, I actually thought that this comic starts off with a bang, tackling the alien wars on the get-go. However that’s not the case here as after settling down the stories on alien wars and galactic survival, the story moves on to the couple already without any real smooth transition. From one point where the book talks about the beginning of the universe and the process of natural selection, it just jumps to the little town and the lives of Will and Jesse, without any clear sense of what would happen next. The pace’s all sluggish and I’ve felt that what I’m reading has transformed from sci-fi adventure to some weekly teledrama flick.
Well, looking at the bright side, that slow start has given me a solid image of who Will and Jesse are and how much they mean to each other. Mastamuro’s story was able to do some heavy groundwork on the two’s personalities and background. It could have been draggy and slow but the silver-lining’s that it made enabled me to easily feel for the two characters and care for what would become of their plans of settling after some unexpected alien action goes on. Also, the jump from space to residential area allows some speculation and expectation of grander events in the next chapter.
The awfully slow pace could be a turn off for some readers and in my case the misleading pace got me disappointed but I was still able to pull through and look at the brighter side of this comic. Opening issues have always been a challenge and I guess Overtaken just suffered some of those opening issue problems. Having said all of that, the artwork’s still really good and the story could pull off something bigger later on with its somewhat familiar plot with a twist. It’s a beautiful book but for now it’s just one that has lot to promise and I really hope things would turn around in the next one. Oh and congratulations to Aspen Comics for its tenth year anniversary!
Review Score:
7/10
Overtaken is the seventh of ten in Aspen Comics’ “10 for 10″ titles for their tenth year anniversary and is one of their most anticipated titles. Of course I got my copy from our Comic Odyssey! Big thanks to you guys!
