When the galaxy’s most-feared hero, Andrew Smith, is asked to stop a diabolical warlord, he has to own up to the fact that he doesn’t actually know how to fight and seek out the training of Gamble, a legendary immortal fighter.
The Good
Rocky meets Star Wars is an inherently-appealing concept for a comic and I was charmed by the whole notion of a giant monster having to, at last, live up to this heroic reputation circumstances had undeservedly awarded him. The first third of this OGN (the first issue) is actually pretty tight with some fun, if light, poking at the tropes of space opera.
The Bad
The art’s really all over the place. Some pages and panels have lavish detail and professional levels of rendering; others seem like there wasn't enough time or interest put in to properly render backgrounds or even keep perspective in line. The writing really suffers from the same problem. It starts off quite tightly, then gets steadily buried in a mess of long monologues that could've really benefited from trimming.
The Verdict - 2.5/5
In both positive and negative ways, this OGN feels like a promising ashcan you’d pick up in artist alley at a convention. If it were tightened and some of the excessive monologues were shortened, it'd be a solid 22-pager. There’s definitely raw talent here and an earnest sincerity to the work that's hard to resist, but it’s much rougher than anything I’d everexpect out of IDW. I feel like the team behind this is going to produce some good comics, but they still need a couple years of practice to sharpen their work.
