Vescell #5 – Review

By: Enrique Carrion (writer), John Upchurch (art) and Rafael Diaz (letters)

The Story: Agent Barrino gets called in to investigate a mystery with WWII ties.

Four Things:

1. Pieces clicking together. – I’ve been a pretty unabashed fan of this series, but the one thing that bugged me was how we seem to have many disconnected story pieces.  For example, in issue #1 we learned how Agent Barrino’s girlfriend had been banished to a demonic limbo and he was on a mission to get her back.  Well, that plot thread wasn’t fiddled with much over the next several issues as we just watched Barrino solving cases, having sexy time with the ladies and establishing the world of Vescell.  So, it was really nice to see the girlfriend plotline come back in this issue.  It wasn’t the A-story, but there was enough attention devoted to it that I feel better about the coherence of the whole Vescell story.

2. Love the series of done-in-ones. – The storytelling style employed by Carrion is great.  Each issue has a fully resolved major plot (this one relates to a woman who was turned into a vessel for Hitler using a Nazi-era technology) and Carrion uses that A-Story to better establish his world and the characters that live in it.  Everything feels fast paced.  We’re only five issues into this series and I already feel like I know a LOT about these characters, especially when I compare Vescell to a lot of the Marvel stories that I read where it takes 6 months for anything to happen.  You never pick up an issue of Vescell and have to worry too much about remember intricate plot details from the last few issues.

Vescell #4 – Review

By: Enrique Carrion (writer/creator), John Upchurch (art), Rafael Diaz (letters)

The Story: A pop-star is sick of fame and wants to transfer out of her body.

Five Things: 

1. Why is this title getting zero chatter?  – I’ve been really mystified at how little I’ve heard about this title because it is really good.  You wouldn’t expect the guys who only read Big 2 superhero books to comment on Vescell, but it doesn’t seem to be getting any jabber even from people who DO read a lot of non-Big 2 comics.  My only speculation about why a great comic like this has no buzz is that it launched right when DC sucked all the oxygen out of the room during the fall.  If you like things that are a little different and you missed this, check it out.  I keep waiting for the issue where it takes a turn for the mediocre and it hasn’t happened yet.

2. Fun science-fiction story. – The basic premise of the series is that there is this corporation called Vescell Corp who has pioneered a method of transferring a person’s mind into a new body.  Interestingly, they only focus on oddball cases.  There’s no “giving Steve Jobs’ a fresh body” or explorations of the societal impact of immortality.  It’s all pop-starlets who want to be normal again, women who want to be men or artificial intelligences that want a body.  Each month, there have been some interesting scenarios cooked up by the creator to keep us interested.

3. Sexy too.  – Vescell Corp employs this dude named Agent Barrino to bring in their more famous cases.  Like if the starlet really wants to be “normal”, she can’t have the media knowing what she did, right?  That’s what the Agents do: maintain the anonymity of the customers.  But, along the way, it seems like Barrino has sex with any hot woman that he comes across.  And that’s always fun.  But, there’s also a perversity to Vescell that is refreshing.  For example, in this issue, someone inhabits the starlet’s old body that has major issues, so we’re treated to this highly kinky/disturbing scene with the starlet and a strap-on.  You’ll have to read it, but it’s enjoyable to read a comic that isn’t making any attempt to be all-ages or tone things down.

Vescell #2 – Review

By: Enrique Carrion (writer & creator), John Upchurch (art & colors) & Rafael Diaz (letters)

The Story: Agent Barrino gets called in to evaluate an artificial intelligence who wants to be transferred to a human body and along the way he runs into his sexy, assassin ex-girlfriend (is there any other kind?).  Meanwhile, a former Vescell employee is doing back-alley consciousness transfers and that simply won’t do…

What’s Good: This series is really promising and cool.  The first issue was all kinds of fun as it told the story of an Agent Barrino who works for the Vescell Corporation.  Vescell has perfected the ability to transfer a person’s consciousness from one body to another.  So it has a science fiction angle.  Some of those wanting to be transferred have shady pasts, so it picks up a vibe kinda like the Transporter movies as Agent Barrino tries to bring the patients safely into Vescell for the transfer.  Then it has a demonic angle as we learn that Barrino’s girlfriend has been banished to a Hellish realm.  And there’s Barrino’s “partner” who is a pixie/fairy who he can shoot out of a special gun.  Oh, and all the women are sexy as hell.  That was a LOT of good stuff for a first issue.

We’ve all seen new comics quickly lose their luster, so it was great to see the momentum keep going in this issue.  For one thing, this is a 30-page issue, and it’s a dense 30 pages!  Compared to a “normal” comic, you’re probably getting about 4-5 issues worth of story here and when you combine with the material in the first issue, we’ve had a LOT of Vescell injected into us.  Trust me, some of the decompressed writers at the Big 2 would play with this amount of story for 40 issues.  So, writer Carrion has plenty of room to introduce us to two new people who want to have a Vescell switcheroo.  Each of these characters has a very different and unique reason for wanting to be switched, but they both weave together seamlessly with the activities of Agent Barrino and his fairy partner Machii.  You’ve got a little bit of everything in this issue: action, violence, sex, deception, betrayal, plotting…

The art is pretty hot too.  The art looks very digital and it isn’t the type of art that I usually gush over, but there’s just something about the way that Upchurch is pulling everything together.  I think one of the things working to his advantage is that he’s coloring his own work.  It reminds me a little bit of the art that Axel Medellin does on Elephantmen where there isn’t a neat demarcation between linework and color-art. It’s just one piece of art.  I’m not sure how well it would work if a third party came in to color this; they might well turn it into a butchery of overly highlighted body parts.  But, because Upchurch is doing it all, he probably knows what he needs to digitally ink and what he can get with the colors.

Quick-Hit Reviews – Week of August 31, 2011

Quick-Hits has been on “vacation” for awhile, but is back this week as there are a number of comics for which there wasn’t time to do a full review.  Most were pretty good…

Vescell #1 – I didn’t count the pages in this first issue from Image, but it felt like it was ~40 pages and took a long time to read.  And, it was a hell of a lot of fun.  The action revolves around an agent of the Vescell Corporation.  Vescell specializes if transferring the consciousness of a person into a new body, so it’s handy for wives looking to leave husbands, criminals on the run, etc., and this agent is charge of spiriting them away to Vescell’s labs unseen so they can begin their new lives.  That part was kinda cool, but also the fact that this agent has a HOT girlfriend who is stuck in some demon-realm, but can be channeled into the bodies of the living– that was neat too.  And the agent has a tinkerbell like fairy helper/partner who he shoots out of a gun at the bad guys.  Lots of R-rated sexual content too, if that’s your thing.  Very enjoyable.  Can’t wait for the next issue.  Grade: B+

Rocketeer Adventures #4 – Here’s a candidate for miniseries of the year!  This was another strong entry in this series featuring short Rockteer stories told and drawn by some of the best in the business.  This issue features (among others): Dave Gibbons, Tony Harris (wow!), John Arcudi, Brendan McCarthy & Ashley Wood.  These are great fun stories and I wish IDW would keep it rolling because I’ve loved every minute of it.  Grade: B+

The Vault #2 – I usually hate comics that read like movie pitches in comic form, but I don’t care. The Vault is fun stuff.  Even though I don’t think there is much original going on here, I really enjoyed this issue that featured a treasure hunting team that dug up something that should have been left in the ground.  Bad things are happening how!  If you’ve enjoyed Mummy movies or The Thing from Another World, you’ll probably get a kick out of this comic.  And, it’s only 3 issues, so there isn’t much to stop you.  Grade: B

Skull Kickers #10 – This series is just flat fun.  I think we might have learned the names of our dwarf and his hulking buddy, but given who gave us the names, I’m not sure they can be trusted.  The plot in this cycle has to do with our duo running afoul of a bunch of nasty pixies in the best swords and sandals fashion.  The high-point in this issue was when the dwarf got shot with an arrow and is bleeding all over the place (the sounds effects say, “Squirt, Squirt, Squirt”) and he urges his companion to plug the wound with a dead squirrel.  If that sounds like your kind of humor, you should read Skull Kickers.  I really like the art by Edwin Huang too.  Grade: B

Fear Itself: The Deep #3 – Boy have these Fear Itself tie-in series sucked!  But, The Deep has been a bright spot.  This isn’t a groundbreaking issue that changes the universe or anything, but it is well written by Cullen Bunn and nicely drawn by Lee Garbett.  It features characters who I enjoy like Lyra, the Savage She-Hulk and Loa (from the X-Men), but also manages to redeem a few characters I don’t usually like (Dr. Strange, Namor & Silver Surfer) as they battle the Fear Itselfed minions of Attuma.  As I said, most of the Fear Itself miniseries have been shit, but this is worth buying. Grade: B

Last Mortal #4 – This wasn’t bad, but it does warrant a big “meh.”  I guess the black and white art was kinda catchy, but there was never anything about the story that captured or held my interest as we came to the conclusion of this series.  The young loser who can’t die is on a mission to get answers and retribution for the death of his loser buddy.  I think I just don’t want to read stories about losers, perhaps?  Main characters need to be a little more likable than this kid because I just can’t root for a protagonist who is such a waste of skin.   Grade: C

Epoch #1 – Your enjoyment of this is going to depend largely on how much you groove on stories of Biblical angels and demons walking among us.  I really don’t care for that type of story, so it just came off as really pretentious seeing this cop who is realizing that he has powers that he wasn’t previously aware of and that his father, Gabriel (hint, hint), might not be quite the old douchebag he’d thought.  If you like angels and demons, you might like this, but I probably should have read the solicitation text more closely.  Even the art didn’t quite click with me.  It looked like it kinda wanted to be Capullo-like, and I love Capullo, but this just left me cold.  Grade: C-

– Dean Stell

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