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NYX
Wannabe – Part One
1/NOV/2003
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Writer: Joe Quesada
Pencils: Joshua Middleton
Inks: Joshua Middleton
Colors: Joshua Middleton
Letters: Chris Eliopoulos
Price: $2.99 US/R34.00 SA
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Joe Quesada [Daredevil] decides
to take up a pen instead of a pencil as he brings us a mutant tale
with a twist.
A young girl, Kiden, witnesses her father’s
murder in a drive-by shooting. Years pass and we find her struggling
against her single mother’s authority and ditching school.
After getting in a fight with a local schoolyard gangster she suddenly
finds herself using strange powers in order to defend her best friend
from harm.
The power of this story is in the small things. The main story driving
device is the rhythm of the urban environment in which it is placed
and the focus on modern-day teenage lifestyles.
The dialogue between the estranged daughter and her mother is spot-on
and the banter and attitude between the schoolyard gangster and
Kiden is perfect.
It’s the strength of dialogue that keeps
the story based in reality and it’s the reality based teen
story that keeps the book interesting. Superpowers will probably
come into play, as we see in the last page of this issue, but let’s
hope they don’t steal the limelight from the strong teen characterisation
and modern urban New York setting.
Josh Middleton [X-Men Unlimited,
New Mutants] has exploded from being a red-hot
cover artist and started doing full interior art here on NYX. His
artwork includes both inks and colours and on the whole is very
nicely done. His strength lies within his skill to emit emotion
via his characters faces. He can draw female faces and hair in such
a fresh and original tone and style that it’s just scary.
The downside is his somewhat mundane and muted choice of
colour at times and the strange pixelated splotches that
seem to have come through in the re-production of the art. Some
pages are clean and crisp yet others are blotchy, pixelated and
out of registration. It looks like Marvel are losing the battle
when it comes to quality comics as their paper stock looks cheap
and has annoying show-through and this comic suffers greatly
for what seems like rushed production values.
A nice change from the ‘mutant’ norm and a great street
tale of modern day teen lifestyles, which if it can avoid the superhero
clichés, like it does in this issue, could turn out
to be something special.
Score 7/10
Reviewed By:Iain Duncan
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Comic Reviews
