Green Wake #1 – Review

By: Kurtis Wiebe (story), Riley Rossmo (art), Kelly Tindall (letters) & Jade Dodge (edits)

The Story: A detective, noirish murder-mystery set in a purgatory-like environment.

What’s Good: Riley Rossmo (Proof, Cowboy Ninja Viking) has been good for a long time, but this is his best work yet.  This issue has all of his sketchy roughness such that the emotion of the scene just bleeds off the page, but due to the darker subject matter of the story, he’s allowed to go even further with this style (or clean it up less).  The other thing that he’s really adding here is cool architecture.  I’m always a sucker for guys who draw buildings and streetscapes well and Rossmo’s city (?) of Green Wake establishes much of the mood for the story.

Rossmo also does a lot of Templesmith-style digital work on his drawings to punch them up even more.  Like giving a scene a green wash to establish a mood that is only broken by the riot of red from the bleeding man in the street.  It’s just really powerful art and the art alone is worth the price of admission for this issue.

What’s Not So Good: I don’t get the story.  The Green Wake setting seems to be some sort of purgatory where the characters are stuck.  I’m sure that the mystery of “what is Green Wake” will be part of the point to the whole series.  But, this opaqueness really loomed over the entire story (for me) and made it such that I couldn’t concentrate on (and enjoy) the otherwise solid murder-mystery that is on the surface.

Weekly Comic Book Review’s Top Picks

Dean’s Top Picks

Best From The Past Week: Butcher Baker the Righteous Maker #1 – LOTS of great comics last week, but the one that is still rattling around my brain the most was this insane first issue by Joe Casey & Mike Huddleston.  Just imagine if Steve Rogers went into a Charlie Sheen-type retirement!  Can’t imagine that these two runners-up didn’t win because they were awesome too.  Runners-up: Amazing Spider-Man #657 & Detective Comics #875

Most Anticipated: Fear Itself #1 – Sure, it’ll probably be a minor let down, but even as much as I LOVE creator-owned comics, there are very few things that get me as excited as a Marvel event.  I mostly read Big 2 superhero comics to see things “happen” and only in events are you pretty much guaranteed of things happening.

Other picks: Axe Cop: Bad Guy Earth #2, Sweet Tooth #20, I Zombie #12, Blue Estate #1, Green Wake #1, Nonplayer #1, Herc #1

Alex’s Top Picks

Best From The Past Week: Jimmy Olsen – No contest here.  Jimmy Olsen is a fantastic bundle of fun in both story and art that’s well worth your money.  It’s total blast to read and something that feels really fresh and unlike anything else put out by Marvel or DC.  It’s such a shame that this marks the end for the back-up feature, particularly with Nick Spencer’s departing for Marvel.  Regardless, this giant-sized collection is one that’ll definitely see a few re-reads from me in the years to come.

Most Anticipated: Secret Six #32 – Having spoiled for myself the identity of the White Lanter’s chosen (and what a shocker it is!), Secret Six takes my top slot this week, in the second installment of a new story that totally kicked ass last month.  No more crossovers; this is the Six being the Six and getting involved in the kind of brutal, high drama that the excel at, with team infighting galore.  And hey, there’s more King Shark!  Who doesn’t love the bipedal dose of the ridiculous that is King Shark?

Other Picks: Fear Itself, Brightest Day #23, Sweet Tooth #20