Writer: Andrew Cosby & Michael A. Nelson
Artists: Greg Scott, Sunder Raj (color)
Publisher: Boom! Studios
Plot: A group of scientists and military personnel are stranded on a mysterious island.
Comments: Who here is a fan of the TV show Lost?
Well the writers of this five issue mini series definitely are. They must have spend a lot of time watching that show over and over, because a lot of elements of that great TV show is in this book.
Let me phrase this differently. X Isle could easily be a prequel to the whole Lost hype. The build up of the story isn’t very original: take a mysterious island and strand some people on it. It’s all been done before in every medium.
So the writers aren’t getting any points for "originality," and their dialogue can be found in any bad major motion picture:
“I’m tired. And my leg hurts”.
“How much further anyway?”
“Would you please shut the hell up already?”
And so on. The dialogue found here can be made into a quiz: In which films can you find this exact dialogue? So the dialogue is not top notch, to say the least.
Let us look at the art then. I don’t mind if an artist uses actors or real people for reference for the characters he draws. But can he make it a lot less obvious that he used Samuel L. Jackson and The Rock from The Scorpion King. It’s a bit embarrassing I would say on the part of Greg Scott. I think he could easily do without this because I like his gritty art. The colors match exactly the kind of mood needed in this book. The prolific use of brown and dark green makes the story daunting, which is a good thing.
The characters in Lost find a ship and so do the characters in X Isle. They head for a high point to get the radio working, which is what also happens in…well you know which TV show I mean.
So is this series pretty much pathetic and not worth $2.99?
Well…
I kind of like it. It’s a nice B-movie or pulp fiction, which I also like. Not very original. There is no stretching the sequential art form. It's just straight forward fun.
So if you like some pulp mystery and got too much money in your wallet and want to support a independent publisher, try this.
What did you think of this book?
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