The Saviors #3 – Review

by James Robinson (Writer), J. Bone (Artist)

The Story: It seems to me that James Robinson might take the name ”day of the dead” a bit too literally…

The Review: Having no expectations can be a great thing. When there is no hype or prejudice set against a book, it provides a good chance for the very piece of graphic literature to provide surprises and please the readers with its concepts, its characters and its execution. It’s always a very tough task to let go of expectations, yet it can be achieved through numerous methods.

One of them, it seems, is to not really mind the book’s existence. It might seem a tad harsh, yet I haven’t been wholly impressed yet by James Robinson and his new series The Saviors. While it is decidedly a good idea to base a story around, the world building itself and the various elements haven’t cemented yet to provide for a definitive appreciation on my part. However, it is still a young series and Robinson could very well amplify things in this one. The question is, does he actually achieves this?

What he does well is set up some new ideas as well as presenting new characters. While the focus of the first two issues was decidedly more on Tomas, the writer presents a larger cast here. With each of them being affected by the appearances of lizard men differently and having a different background, Robinson does bring the readers up to speed on their personality and their quirks rather quickly, yet not without efficiency. Some are perhaps a bit stereotypical, yet there is a certain clarity in their motivations and their semi-functionality as a group that does manage to make them interesting enough to make it so there could be development and surprises in the long run.

Still, despite it all, Tomas is still the main protagonist, with a certain focalization on his feelings and reactions brought to the forefront. His personality and his general assessment of the situation driving some of the scenes forward, there is a comprehensible reasoning behind Tomas, yet not one that makes him that interesting or particularly likable in the process. His fears and his desire not to be involved in an underground war against weird lizard people is something that can be easily understood, yet his desire to be protected without him lifting a finger to help in the war effort is something that it more irritating than it is appreciable. While a flawed character makes for a much more interesting lead than a good and utterly perfect one, the character of Tomas Ramirez is perhaps a bit too cowardly to be effectively liked. There’s plenty of room for development and deeper understanding of just who he is, yet so far it’s a bit too soon to properly get attached to a stoner and generally cowardly and detached hero.

The Saviors #2 – Review

James Robinson (Writer), J. Bone (Artist)

The Story: Escaping from certain death, Tomas wants to know what exactly is going on with those weird alien reptiles.

The Review: Trying new things can be hard. While many people generally hold in a positive light any attempts of others to try different genres, writers and artists, it’s not always the easiest of process to just go out and actually get invested in something entirely new. It’s always a matter of quality, of talent behind the creative team, yet there has to be a willingness for the readers to try it out in the first place.

Despite my first reactions and my fears, I rather enjoyed the first issue of James Robinson and J. Bone’s The Saviors, a series that tries to breathe new life into an old story of alien beings in our midst without our knowledge. Presenting us their protagonist and a general sense of danger in ways that felt right for the most part, it made me feel rather good at the prospect of continuing with the series in the first place. However, first issues aren’t everything as there needs to be a good continuation of the story to prove that the concepts has legs of its own. Does the second issue prove that this has the potential to be interesting in the long term?

In some ways, it’s a bit of a tough question to answer straight away. James Robinson, the mind behind this story, does provide enough information and development to make sure readers might be intrigued toward what might happen next and what everything might actually mean in the long term, yet he stumbles a bit along the way as he tells the rather simple story in this issue.

The Saviors #1 – Review

by James Robinson (Writer), J. Bone (Artist)

The Story: Smoking too much weed can have unforeseen effects, such as dependency, a certain lack of ambition and being the prey of weird lizard monsters.

The Review: We live in an age of comics that is kind of revelatory. With a huge explosion of creator-owned comics, there is now a diversity that wasn’t the norm a good number of years back. Writers old and new arise, with people like Brian K. Vaughn and Jonathan Hickman being in on the game just like others like Kurtis J. Wiebe and Jim Zub, with each of them having a particular story or two to tell. For people looking for comics without any trace of capes or tights, it’s rather grand to see something develop so quickly.

It’s with these kind of thoughts that I approached The Saviors, a new creator-owned series by James Robinson and J. Bone. With Robinson being responsible for some beloved stuff like Starman and JSA: The Golden Age, I was rather curious to see how he would fare with this. Would it be on the same level as those classic, or would it fall in the same category as his Earth 2 run?

This issue shows a lot of potential, to be sure, as it offers a certain horror feeling with a certain ease that allows for a great mix between tension and comfort. With the stoner protagonist at the helm of this comic, Robinson provides for a nice template for development, even though Tomas Ramirez is perhaps a bit on the stereotypical side.