Broken Frontier

Originally a movie in the 1980s written by Jeph Loeb and starring Michael J. Fox at the apex of his popularity, Teen Wolf is back.  Updated and made into a TV show, and this comic based on it, some obvious changes have been made.  Some are understandable, some are unforgiveable.  This isn't my Teen Wolf, that's for sure.

Scott McCall was a normal teenager.  At least as normal as things can be for a teenager.  Then he was bitten by a werewolf and became one himself.  Now he has to keep his transformations and problems therein a secret from family, school, and the girls he's trying to bed.  All while trying to understand just what is happening to him and avoid those who hunt people like him.  Kind of puts getting through geometry into perspective.

When you go from the 1980s to 2011, there are going to be necessary changes.  And when you switch from a movie, with a set starting and end point, to an organic type of storytelling like television and comic books, more liberties must be taken with a story.  So for fans of the original, there really isn't much recognizable here outside of there being a teenager who turns into a werewolf.  But whereas the original was a comedy that tried to make us laugh at how different we can be, how hard growing up is, and how family sometimes (oftentimes? always?) seems to get in the way, this new update has gone into a much different direction.  Gone is the comedy.  Gone is the "nerd" just trying to fit in and be popular.  In their place we have angst, anger, and darkness.  It's as if someone took the concept of Teen Wolf and Twilighted it.  Or perhaps they were trying to do for Teen Wolf what was once done with Buffy the Vampire Slayer.  Except they don't quite have the Whedon magic.  This book is filled with cringeworthy cliches, stale, generic characters, and nothing that makes it stand out.  Well, except for the omniscent third person narration that ironically went out of style in the 1980s.  I wonder if there's a real plan for this narration, because here it seems sloppy and, even worse, lazy.

The artwork here can face similar complaints to the story.  The storytelling is simple, but at least it's easy to follow.  The character design is plain and generic, which should most certainly not be the case.  This is a chance to have fun and yet it seems to be forced into the dark corners of the world.  The inking is overdone, complicating what could be clean linework and disrupting any individuality the characters could take on.  If not for the melodramatic situations of the characters, readers wouldn't know their emotions at all.

Teen Wolf, as a property, was never landmark.  It held no real impact and effect on people.  But at least it was fun and had heart.  This new update lacks any of that.  Jeph Loeb and Michael J Fox need to return and save the property.