Assassin School #4 
B1N4RY #2 
Monster Club v2 #1 
Monster Club v2 #2
I must admit that I’d never heard of AP Comics before I received a bundle of comics from them along with a cryptic note asking me to review them, so I have no context within which to look at these books, a situation made worse by not one of them being an introductory issue. So apologies if I make some basic mistakes as regards to setting and so on, as I’ve read nothing but what was sent to me.
Assassin School is a fun, boisterous read, with a great deal of energy and verve. The downside to this is that there’s little coherence, and the issue collapses into a bit of a mess here and there. Writer Richard Emms also needs to be careful with his use of clichés, taking note of what works as a spoof, and what just comes across as campy. Enrique Corts does a pretty good job on art, especially on the heroine, but a couple of niggling problems here and there, such as the way he draws people wearing suits, really annoyed me for some reason. On the other hand, he makes use of some very neat storytelling tricks that I always approve of, like the use of close-up reticules within panels. On the whole, this title is good fun and certainly doesn’t lack enthusiasm, but it does lack something else. A stronger sense of purpose and some more well-rounded characters would help immeasurably, I think.
A similar absence of spark afflicts B1N4RY, although to a lesser extent. I was rather put off by the central concept of a digital superhero in cyberspace, which is one that’s been done (badly) for as long as computers have been part of everyday life, and I was less than enthused to see that old chestnut used here again. In the past, it’s usually been due to embarrassingly out of touch writers trying to appeal to “the youth of today” (Tron) or because it’s an uninspired tie-in to some actual digital product (Megaman: NT Warrior or my personal favourite, Captain N: The Gamesmaster). Strangely enough, neither seems to be the case here, although I wouldn’t be surprised if the concept was designed with a deliberate eye towards licensing. Anyway, central concept aside, this isn’t too bad. It’s a little unexciting, but there are some fun ideas in here. Again, Emms has problems fleshing out his characters, but as this is only the second issue, there’s some leeway to be afforded there. Jim Sutherns’s angular, blocky art style is probably not to everyone’s tastes, but is a favourite of mine. I don’t like the way that people’s mouths come out of the sides of their heads, and there are a few artistic goofs here and there (one panel is supposed to show a video image made unrecognisable by static, but the hero is clearly shown, making the later digital clean-up scene redundant), but on the whole, this is a style I can enjoy, at least in small doses. Out of all of the AP comics in my reviewer’s bundle, this is the one that intrigued me the most, probably due to its sense of lurking mystery and tension. How much I’ll like it when it explodes into superhero action in the next issue, I don’t know, but this was pretty good stuff. I could do without the strained quasi-digital text though, at least on the credits page.
Finally, Monster Club is a strangely titled comic featuring a group of paramilitary monster hunters. I suspect that they wanted “Monster Squad,” as that seems more appropriate to the context, but is probably still under copyright due to the 1987 film (which, in all fairness, probably should have been called “Monster Club” given its context!). By necessity, Emms has to do some character work here, as a team-based comic needs characters who can be differentiated from one another. One dimensional they may be, but that’s one more than the characters in the other books get. This is made worse by the undue amount of attention given to character interaction here, at the expense of action. Considering the premise of the comic, I’d have thought that the latter would have been a better focus, especially with the characters being so weakly defined in the first place. All in all, this struck me as the most uninspired of the comics I received, and it was only the art that kept me interested, sad to say. Theo Bain draws the first issue in a style reminiscent in many ways of that of Jeff Matsuda as well as the “house style” Marvel is using on its tertiary titles like Runaways and Jubilee, and it’s a good choice, although it fits the scenes of character interaction more than the action sequences, and Bain’s monster designs are a bit uninspiring. Jim Sutherns provides art on the second issue, and while it’s a little rushed in places, it’s a good job overall.
AP Comics have some promising titles here. None of them strike me as being particularly successful, but each one has a great deal of potential, and if some of the individual quirks could be ironed out, they could have some excellent comics on their hands. I certainly hope that the company sticks around in order to do just that, as I may very well come back to their titles if they do so.
What did you think of this book?
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