Livewires #3

Holy crap is that an ugly cover. Murky, confusing, nasty color palette. I wouldn't read a comic with that cover . . . if I hadn't already read the one before it and it was wonderful. Livewires is about a bunch of cyborgs who work for a 'top-secret, quasi-governmental R&D project.' Their mission? To seek out and destroy all the other top-secret, quasi-governmental R&D projects. What a great concept.

Adam Warren has a pretty light touch with this series. His amerimanga style (aped by Mays and Martin) suits the tone well. Most of the action in this issue happens over a span of maybe ten minutes, although you wouldn't know it from the density of text on the page. I've seen Alan Moore pages less verbose than this. Yet it's totally light and accessible, even though the majority of the words are somewhat metatextual. See, it's the characters discussing what's happening while it happens, with occasional side chatter. They're robots, so of course they have a shared wireless intranet. It's a really, really brilliant storytelling tool that Warren uses to full effect. The characters come through clearly, and there's lots of great slangy stuff (although I'm getting a little tired of the 'My mecha!' catch-phrase some of the characters use), including a great scene where Cornfed analyzes all the smells in a dance club.

This attention to the minutiae of the action allows Warren to create a very tense operation, where, from the outside, it mostly just looks like a club where people are dancing. It's a really short heist movie, like Oceans 11, compressed down to 20 pages, and with pheromones and robots. Great stuff, and totally the way to go with it. Warren's in such control that, when he suddenly jumps ahead 6 days to show one of the results of the club operation, it feels totally natural, even though it leaves another, more immediate, plot thread dangling.

The art is excellent. Social Butterfly's transformation sequence, Hollowpoint Ninja's fight, the conversation between Gothic Lolita and Stemcell, even Cornfed's beergut (where he keeps the robot-repairing nanosynthskin) are all well rendered by the art team. The club feels crowded, but during the one-on-one scenes with Gothic Lolita and Stemcell, the art manages to communicate the emptiness of the house they're in. Don't be chased off by the hybrid manga look, this is good art under any name. Well-done, clear, controlled, and completely in synch with the story it's telling. Other than the cover, there are no fumbles here, and whoever did the graphic design on the mecha 'IM system' ought to get a raise. It's all so smoothly integrated into a whole, slick package.

This book was one of those things I tried on a lark, figuring I'd hate it, and it's something I'm now wishing would go on for longer than six issues, but there's a cloud of doom hanging over the Livewires, they have no choice but to be loyal, they're programmed that way, but they're completely aware that what they do is incredibly dangerous and will probably end with their destruction. For such a light book, it bears that heavy load surprisingly easily.

Rage-O-Meter | The lower the score, the less angry the comic made me. Anger is bad.
Livewires #3: 1 (Me Likey)
-A wonderful confection of comic goodness in a crappy wrapper.

	Livewires #3 (of 6) Marvel Comics Story and Layouts: Adam Warren Penciler: Rick Mays Inker: Jason Martin Colors: Guru EFX "Part 3: Mammalian Verisimilitude"
	Holy crap is that an ugly cover. Murky, confusing, nasty color palette. I wouldn't read a comic with that cover . . . if I hadn't already read the one before it and it was wonderful. Livewires is about a bunch of cyborgs who work for a 'top-secret, quasi-governmental R&D project.' Their mission? To seek out and destroy all the other top-secret, quasi-governmental R&D projects. What a great concept. Adam Warren has a pretty light touch with this series. His amerimanga style (aped by Mays and Martin) suits the tone well. Most of the action in this issue happens over a span of maybe ten minutes, although you wouldn't know it from the density of text on the page. I've seen Alan Moore pages less verbose than this. Yet it's totally light and accessible, even though the majority of the words are somewhat metatextual. See, it's the characters discussing what's happening while it happens, with occasional side chatter. They're robots, so of course they have a shared wireless intranet. It's a really, really brilliant storytelling tool that Warren uses to full effect. The characters come through clearly, and there's lots of great slangy stuff (although I'm getting a little tired of the 'My mecha!' catch-phrase some of the characters use), including a great scene where Cornfed analyzes all the smells in a dance club. This attention to the minutiae of the action allows Warren to create a very tense operation, where, from the outside, it mostly just looks like a club where people are dancing. It's a really short heist movie, like Oceans 11, compressed down to 20 pages, and with pheromones and robots. Great stuff, and totally the way to go with it. Warren's in such control that, when he suddenly jumps ahead 6 days to show one of the results of the club operation, it feels totally natural, even though it leaves another, more immediate, plot thread dangling. The art is excellent. Social Butterfly's transformation sequence, Hollowpoint Ninja's fight, the conversation between Gothic Lolita and Stemcell, even Cornfed's beergut (where he keeps the robot-repairing nanosynthskin) are all well rendered by the art team. The club feels crowded, but during the one-on-one scenes with Gothic Lolita and Stemcell, the art manages to communicate the emptiness of the house they're in. Don't be chased off by the hybrid manga look, this is good art under any name. Well-done, clear, controlled, and completely in synch with the story it's telling. Other than the cover, there are no fumbles here, and whoever did the graphic design on the mecha 'IM system' ought to get a raise. It's all so smoothly integrated into a whole, slick package. This book was one of those things I tried on a lark, figuring I'd hate it, and it's something I'm now wishing would go on for longer than six issues, but there's a cloud of doom hanging over the Livewires, they have no choice but to be loyal, they're programmed that way, but they're completely aware that what they do is incredibly dangerous and will probably end with their destruction. For such a light book, it bears that heavy load surprisingly easily. Rage-O-Meter \| The lower the score, the less angry the comic made me. Anger is bad. Livewires #3: 1 (Me Likey) -A wonderful confection of comic goodness in a crappy wrapper.
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