Reviewed by EEN on 3-26-09 on Choice Comics
Johnny Saturn is a hard comic for me to review because I have mixed feelings. There are a lot of good things to be said about JS. Sometimes it feels like Frank Miller and Grant Morrison are writing this comic instead of Scott Story….other times it reminds of why I stopped reading image comics.
In the end it is comic written by a fan of the genre for fans of the genre. This isn’t a universe where heroes have traded in the capes of leather jackets, but it is one where heroes strap their logo onto Kevlar rather than spandex. A series that isn’t afraid to give you want to expect in a super hero or deconstruct the genre depending on where the story goes. And it has an infectious energy that draw you into the world even when something makes you roll your eyes.
On Writing:
Scott’s Story lines originally where very hit or miss with me but they’ve gotten much better over time. If you’re willing to enjoy a bit of comic book logic the recent storylines have been very solid and enjoyable, more over the comic has gone from a simple noir action romp to actually having surprising emotional depth. Early on a lot of the paranormal elements really felt out of place ruining the feel of the gritty universe and snapping your suspension of disbelief like a twig but Scott backed off them for a bit and as they’ve started to creep back into the comic they now feel right at home.
Scott is a good writer of morally grey characters and the further the comics goes the more depth it starts to bring to those characters. Some obvious straw-men stand-ins for other staple superheroes have really grown from total tools in the early chapters to well rounded relatable characters with depth, motivations, virtues and flaws. The major flaw with the comic now is that the villains have not grown with the series. The grey moral haze and complexities of the heroes only makes the black hearted villains and their often nihilistic or Orwellian plans progressively more the comics critical weak point. The comic’s villains are all Red Skulls and Mephistopheles when what the comic needs is a good Doctor Doom or Magneto.
On Art:
Scott’s are style is fairly unique and a good fit for the universe. It strikes me as a cross between the Batman: Animated series style and the 90′s image style popularized by McFarlane and his like.
The colors used in the character designs would be my only complaint, but the style itself is very enjoyable and most of the characters are very visually interesting if sometimes a bit over the top, but in a super hero universe sometimes that is just what you need.
Overall:
In summery if you enjoyed things like Allen Moore’s run on Supreme in all its love letter to the genre flavor then you’ll enjoy Johnny Saturn. Johnny Saturn in listed a B class hero in the universe and maybe Johnny Saturn is B super hero comic sometimes, but it gets it right more often than not and even when it lack polish and refinement it always tries its hardest and gives a lot more than most of the main stream titles.
Read and Enjoy.
