This... What is This?
This book does not appear to be for me. It's sad, too, because I have a labor-of-love Saved by the Bell blog based on the original show. I mean, I want to like this, but what's to like?
Granted this is a first issue, but the script is so incredibly shallow. It's like each character is a caricature. Lisa and Jessie have unoriginal one-off lines; Screech is stupid (not endearingly annoying like the show, but stupid); Zack and Slater are enemies only because of, well, they have to be enemies? Kelly is the only character that seems right... so far.
The art is fine for what it's going for. That's all I will say about it.
The underlying gripe I have is that this comic does nothing to connect the issue to the show. There is a certain doofy nostalgia that comes with the original tv show. We like seeing Zack's brick mobile phone. We like the harsh neon colors that were an inexplicable part of the era's fashion palette. Instead we have an updated Bayside High set in the present. The clothes are current, the language is current, and it all feels wrong. I mean, why update everything when everything we love about the show has to do with it being so dated and yet still so quirky and enjoyable? This book could be about any other present-day high school kids and it would be just as "good". Being titled "Saved by the Bell" only serves to hook suckers like me who buy the whole series without having read just the first issue.
This series has a lot of potential, but if the rest of the issues are like this (yes, I will be reading all of them) then I am in for some serious disappointment.