Comics / Manga

The Mysterians: Volume 1

By Leroy Douresseaux
August 8, 2008 - 07:57

Rated “OT” for “Teen-Age 16+”

Rich boy Logan Gilroy has a bad attitude.  Teen gymnast Leelee Xing is China’s hope for Olympic gold.  Twins Jenna and Jamie McCloud have spent most of their young lives with foster parents.  Tony Valdez has an amazingly smart mind, but he’s focused on unraveling the mystery he believes is behind his journalist father’s death.  These five young people, worlds apart, are united by the most amazing circumstances.

The last surviving member of an underground resistance has brought them together.  Her name is Vox.  Her mission is to expose and destroy a vast and sinister plot to take over Earth.  Logan, Leelee, Jenna, Jamie, and Tony may be the last chance to save Earth from an invading alien race called the Reticulans.  After having destroyed their planet’s ecosystem, the Reticulans are determined to extinguish life on Earth and take the planet for themselves.  Now, this young quintet must use the extraordinary abilities its members possess fight a conspiracy completely unnoticed by humanity at large.

THE LOWDOWN:  Filmmakers writer/producer/director Chuck Russell (The Scorpion King, Eraser) and producer Michael Uslan (a key figure in the production of all the Batman feature films going back to 1989) have created manga.  The Mysterians deftly mixes superhero comics and sci-fi action in a way that could only mean it’s also a movie pitch, which it is indeed.  Apparently Russell and Uslan are trying to bring The Mysterians to the big screen.  But what about this Global Manga (non-Japanese comics created to be like manga, the term for Japanese comics)?

The Mysterians, Vol. 1 introduces a concept that is borrowed from past alien invasion sci-fi media.  Specifically, The Mysterians’ alien conspiracy seems like a heated-up, heavily updated version of John Carpenter’s They Live, the 1988 cult sci-fi flick about greedy, capitalist-like aliens making a move on Earth’s resources.  The super-powered quintet of young heroes-in-waiting bears a passing resemblance to the X-Men because of The Mysterians somewhat outcast status, which is the X-Men’s calling card.

As for the comic: Jay Antani’s script unleashes action and sci-fi violence at a breakneck pace, with only an occasional stop for character development.  It should be noted that for whatever his script lacks, Antani has written a sort of entertaining summer potboiler, but Antani’s work isn’t the star of this show – neither are Russell and Uslan.  Everything good about The Mysterians comes down to artist Matt Hentschel.

Like films, comics are a visual medium, but whereas films have the strong imprint of the directors and stars, the guy who actually photographs a movie doesn’t have as strong an influence over a film like a director does.  In comics, what we see on the page is put their by people who draw, so an artist can dominate a story, even changing elements of what the writer intended.  Matt Hentschel dominates The Mysterians.  I really don’t think this concept would amount to much without the vision of a skilled artist to visualize it, and boy, does Hentschel visualize.

Hentschel makes me forget how derivative The Mysterians is.  Every panel is a tour de force of figure drawing, action, art direction, set making, costume design, creature makeup, tech design, etc.  I have a hard time believing one guy alone drew this with his hands and maybe the assistance of a computer.  The Mysterians works well when the reader focuses on what Hentschel put down on the page.

POSSIBLE AUDIENCE:  Fans of Geof Darrow and Frank Quitely’s art may want to see artist Matt Hentschel’s work, which makes The Mysterians feel like Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely’s New X-Men storyline “E is for Extinction.”

B+

 

Last Updated: August 31, 2023 - 08:12