Comic of the Week: Scarlet #1

July 11, 2010

Brian Michael Bendis did to Daredevil what people thought only Frank Miller could do - make DD the hottest character title on the shelves because of awesomeness. He did so for a few HC volumes. Why, then, does Bendispeak piss me off profoundly on other titles, like majority of his Avengers. I hate it when he makes everyone do comedic banter while fighting on all his damn team books. Can any of you kids tell me why that happens? How Bendis can be this god of awesome one minute and seem like a newbie the next?

I think it’s the type of book he writes. There’s a certain style that suits him incredibly well. To prove this to you, I would like to present you with our Comic of the Week - Scarlet #1

Written by Brian Michael “Bendispeak” Bendis
Brought to life by Alex Maleev

Bendis’ writing works very well when the title reads like a TV series with investigators, drug dealers, dead hookers and crooked cops. It worked fantastically well with Daredevil. I’m actually not surprised it did for Scarlet #1.

In one word, a very succinct description would be “gripping.” It didn’t turn me off right off the bat for not having a severe lack ninjas and/or robots. For someone who doesn’t really enjoy comic books without non-superpowered characters or armies of robots, Scarlet was refreshing yet familiar, probably because it still played out the way superhero books do. Issue #1 is essentially an origin story, but instead of giving us a long, drawn out historical tale, it was told in a very unique way.

Everything you need to know to care about the character, to humanize the character, to give the character a personality was conveyed to you in two (well, three) pages of these boxed up moments of her life. I’m sure everyone reading this and the bajillions of people who aren’t can take their life and box it up like this.

You know the current trend in comics where those narration boxes are spoken by one of the characters instead of an all-seeing, all-knowing omniscient voice? I like that. I like that a lot. I hate seeing those god-narration boxes. Those suck. I hate it when Fraction does it sometimes. Scarlet takes those first-person narration boxes and takes it to another level, so it played out like a movie with the protagonist talking to the audience like he’s telling a story of his life.

And really, the only thing that changed is that the main character is in the panel when narration happens and that the boxes are basically boxy speech balloons. Some people might think it’s a small thing, but this endears the character to me.

Another thing I love about this issue is the art. I’ve always been a fan of Alex Maleev since I first saw it on Daredevil. Ever since then, seeing his name in any comic book credit list fills me up with the happies. His art is like awesome stylized photography.

I love how he draws action sequences, hair, particles and especially facial expressions. Sure, he uses models but still, it’s fantastic. As long as he doesn’t trace them, right?

There was no colorist credited directly as a colorist so I dunno who it was. But those colors work very well with the art.

Story-wise, I am not seeing anything incredibly exciting but I have to be fair because this is just the first issue. It does leave you wondering what happens next and what Scarlet’s means are. This issue has left me wanting to see Scarlet #2.

4 BMB heads out of 5, for potential, if nothing else.