Comic Review: The Seeds #1

The Seeds #1

Dark Horse Comics

Writer: Ann Nocenti

Artist: David Aja

I don’t like giving bad reviews. I don’t like shoving failure in someone’s face. These artists and writers worked hard and sold their idea to someone who liked it. In this case, they have worked on a lot of well-known series, and one of them is a personal favorite of mine. They are more successful in writing and being published than I am, and I am proud of them for that. However, I still have a job to do and review the work that they put out to the public.

The Seeds is four issue limited run. Right out of the gate I have a problem with this comic. The summary for this series sounds semi-interesting and very involved with many moving parts. The comic itself doesn’t even get to some of the plot lines in the summary. It is very scattered. There is a wall that divides a group of people. Zone B is the side where no one uses technology. We don’t know why. There is a character named Race that crosses over the wall. There is a reporter that is looking for a story, and her editor doesn’t seem to care if the story is true or not. There is a girl that slept with Race who may or may not have interest in him. There is a scene where seeds are discussed. There is a group of aliens waiting for the humans to die off and they are collecting these seeds that they need for the post-genocide world. They also have a thing for bees…I don’t know anything about that, yet.

Ann Nocenti is a very accomplished…everything. She has been a writer, journalist, filmmaker, and a teacher. He has written and edited many big comic series’ that you all have heard of and know. She has a vision here, and I don’t see it. Her dialogue is artificial. Her characters are bland, and her plot is shapeless. The reader is left in a land of confusion the whole issue. The closing panels don’t make any sense. I see what is happening, but why is it happening? We have nothing to go off of. Nothing flows and everything is very clunky.

David Aja’s work is noticeable here. I loved him and Matt Fraction’s Hawkeye run. Most people did. As you can see in these sample pages, this book has a style. The colors that are being used, or lack thereof, is all deliberate. I will give Aja this: it feels like a cold world. Most pages are done in the three by three panels as you see here. The problem is that while the writing is not flowing the artwork isn’t helping the reader, either. There was a time where I had to keep flipping and looking through the panels because I couldn’t tell if the character appeared in a previous panel or not. That is not a good sign.

This is a premier issue in a four-installment series. There is limited time to get your audience on board. Knowing that there are three more of these coming down the pike, I felt this was a wasted issue. I should know what is happening and what to look forward to. Instead, I see the parts of a bigger story flashing around on these pages. This is a capable writer and artist combo, so there is still the chance that by the end Seeds can redeem itself and make something of this mess. I hope that is the case for the names on the front of this book.