HaVen #1

Posted: Tuesday, November 8, 2005
By: Darren Schroeder

Cover of HaVen #1 Writer(s): Christopher Moshier
Artist(s): William C.Jamison and Yul Espinosa
Publishers: MC Studios (Self Published)
From: USA
Price: $2.95

In the early part of the 21st Century conflicts between the United States and countries in the Middle East found their way into the biomechanical arena, with the release of nano machines that wrought havoc on humanity. The rich and the powerful fled the planet and established colonies on huge space stations. Humanity soon began to lose its way and it was only the arrival of representatives of an alien society that gave it a sense of purpose though an alliance. Now it is 2126, and the alliance has sent a small force to the ravaged Earth to ask a traitor for his help in saving the new society.

As introductions to series are wont to do, this issue gets through a lot of exposition as the future history is laid out in the first 10 pages. It's a welcome relief that the plot arrives with the drop planeside as the team of grunts interact in standard military fashion and track town their objective. We soon see that life on Earth is violent and desolate but not without hope. There’s a brief instance of action, but the rest of the book contrast the grunt with their mysterious possible savior. He's pretty much the Sean Connery character seen in several forgettable films who is grumpy, determined and bearded.

This is the only really interesting character we get, so I'm not sure if I'd stick round to see how he gets on with the stereotyped grunts. The artwork doesn't do much to hook the reader either. It's rather bland. A lot of effort has gone into the colouring, which comes up well on glossy paper stock. The actual drawings are just rather ordinary, the characters aren't especially deformed (except when required to be), but neither are they particularly animated. For a story with a futuristic setting the technology on display is drawn rather crudely: a space ship is a cylinder with delta wings. a space station looks like a university campus dropped atop an oil rig in space. More giggle that awe-inspiring.

I have a feeling there might be the foundations of an interesting story in the works here, but what we want is exciting or inventive.

In a Word: Routine.



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