The art is fantastic, the setting is imaginative, and the writer is talented. So what’s wrong with this book? It lacks focus. When most comics are working two or three storylines at once, this book has ten storylines (I didn’t even thoroughly go over it, so it could be more by some people’s standards). Let’s do some comparisons to give you an idea of what that amounts to:

Kingdom Come has four storylines:

A. Superman returns
B. Spectre and the old man
C. Batman conspires
D. Too many superheroes running around

Civil War has three storylines (not including tie-ins):

A. Pro registration
B. Anti registration
C. Spider-Man switches sides

With Civil War there are a lot of other things that they touch base on in the main title, but most of the extra stories were fleshed out in the tie-ins. If you want to make your own list of how many storylines that had going, fine, but keep in mind how many books you’re taking into consideration and compare that to how long Fiction Clemens is. Keep in mind, also, that though Clemens is only three issues, each issue is twice as long as the average comic so it’d equate to six Marvel or DC comics.

So far these are the storylines in Clemens and it’s not yet done:

A. Fiction and Tiberius feud
B. Dune Trixie fights for her land
C. UFOs were talked about a lot in the first issue, but not in issue #2
D. A mysterious character called the Clockmaker exists
E. Someone named Finale goes on a date and knows the Clockmaker
F. Blind men are ironically acting as Tiberius’ eyes and ears
G. Bounty hunters are chasing Fic and Trixie
H. Issue #1 opened with a bizarre prophetic vision that wasn’t mentioned in issue #2
I. Kitchens is competing with Smilin’ Earl
J. Three people are attempting to siege the city

A couple of these can be tied together as one storyline rather then two. Fine. But you’re still going to have seven storylines going at once. I didn’t reread issue #1, so I might be missing some of what was brought up in that issue but didn’t appear in this issue. Even if you could get this list down to six storylines -- and I’d adamantly argue with you about what you consider a storyline -- I’ll still say that the story lacks focus.

With this many stories at once, it lets readers into this great world that the writer has imagined, but it also takes away from other storytelling aspects.

The plot slows down a lot; if you compare the pacing in the first issue to the pacing in this one which is more crammed with storylines there would be a remarkable difference. Keep in mind the first issue wasn’t focused either.

Character development also suffers when you’ve got this many stories. Here’s the development of the characters in this issue:

• Fic is quiet but opens up to Trixie eventually
  
• Trixie talks a lot and likes her land
  
• Finale knows the Clockmaker
  
• The Clockmaker is a guy who may or may not be controlling the city
  
• Kitchens is competing with his competitor (yes I know what I just wrote)
  
• Tiberius doesn’t like Fic and falls in love with Fic in drag
  
• The blind men walk around and report to Tiberius
  
• There is a woman who likes Finale and is infatuated by the Clockmaker
  
• There are three people in the desert trying to siege the city
  

A lot of characters, but barely any depth. They’re fun and interesting characters. But they’re not developing. There are more characters then there are character developments. This isn’t even considering characters from issue #1 or that there’ll be more in issue #3.

If you’re one of those people who likes a lot of stories at once and Guy Ritchie movies like Snatch I am right there with you. Those stories are generally done by the most talented writers, who intertwine the stories more then what’s happening in Clemens, and still don’t have this many storylines going on at once. Even if I were to list examples where someone had this many stories at once, I’d be putting this in the league of Academy Award winning films, epic novels, and some of the top comics. This isn’t as good as those, nor as long. By trying to touch on so many different stories in so little time, they’re raising the bar too high for themselves (and they didn’t reach it).

When I make these judgments, I’m assuming that everything is going to tie together in the concluding book and the writer had this vision. I’m even accounting for the stories brought up in the first issue but not mentioned in the second. So I still will say there is not much focus in this story.

It’s a lot of fun to look at and imaginative. But there are a lot of ‘buts’ to go with it. The amount of imagination that Wagner shows is enough for an ongoing series. But instead he’s blown a load of stories in the first arc. If you bought the first one, I’d recommend you go ahead and get this issue but don’t jump on now if you haven’t already.

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