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Underlords by Rick Beckley, Abdul Rashid (Open Book, 2006) |
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Underlords by Rick Beckley, Abdul Rashid (Open Book, 2006) |
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It's a pretty common experience for comic book fans, I think, to stand in front of the comics stands and see the same old books telling the same old stories month in and month out. Even now, in this post-Comics Code era, a lot of stories offer as much depth as the spandex costumes that cover the superheroes' muscular bodies. It's no secret that one of the best places to break out of the superhero rut is the small press, and Open Book Press is one of those publishers working hard to produce new and interesting stories for graphic novel readers.
This graphic novel, simply titled Underlords, appears to be at least the second storyline in the Underlords series, and as such it took me some time to fall in with what the story was actually about. There is a lot of potential for Beckley and Rashid, especially in examining the implications of these beings that essentially have two souls residing within one form. Beckley has the springboard for some stimulating philosophical and theological examinations of what this entails, and it is definitely worth looking in on the series again. Unfortunately, this particular graphic novel sets the bar pretty low. I'm not going to say Underlords is a bad series or a bad idea, only that I think I came in at the worst possible time, like a child walking in on his parents wrapping his Christmas gifts from Santa. I can't say anything bad about the artwork, though. Rashid has some amazingly detailed scenes in this book that rival anything put out by Marvel or DC. A lot of the musculatures on the men and women remind me a bit of Mark Bagley's run on The Amazing Spider-Man but with the larger, fuller-bodied work of someone like Tom Lyle. And in an age of color separations and computer coloring, the coloring work on Underlords is also worth pointing out. The artwork is simply stunning in its quality. And to be honest, Beckley's writing isn't bad. The problem with reading this particular book is simply unfamiliarity with characters and storyline. There are so many characters that after 100-plus pages of story, I'm still unsure who everyone is. And while Rashid's artwork is amazing in its detail, there isn't enough of a solid difference between characters so that I'd ever get them straight. I'm sure this is a problem with many super-team comic books, but when you look back at the greats (X-Men, Fantastic Four, Justice League), you notice each character is distinct from the others to an almost absurd point. In Underlords everyone looks fairly similar, with metallic sleek bodies and futuristic armor. Even the names have little to do with their look. Granted, if I had come into the series from the first issue, I'd probably know them better, but this graphic novel does very little by way of enticing new readers to the book. If anything, the need for familiarity with the background and characters creates an exclusionary effect on the reader, like putting up a wall around the series and forbidding interested newcomers from taking a look. All in all, though, Underlords has a lot of potential, but only if Beckley takes the Underlords away from the superhero genre and more into the fantasy that the Underlords are derivative of. What I'd like to see is an examination into the creation of the Underlords, of the repercussions of being dual-souled, and what it means for ordinary mortals to suddenly be chancellors of the galaxy. Of course, none of this can be accomplished without first opening up the storylines for future readers. How can this be done? Maybe by focusing on one POV character per issue. Maybe by providing a summary of past events at the beginning of each issue. I'm not sure how to do it, but Beckley and Rashid could be sitting on a fascinating goldmine if only they can work out some of the kinks. I'm going to look in on the Underlords again in the future. Hopefully, we'll see some storylines that live up to the premise's potential. by Gregg Winkler |
