Broken Frontier

Candidate for worst comic of the year.

Enrique Carrion’s new series Vescell almost immediately trips, stumbles, crashes, and finally explodes in an incomprehensible mess.  Vescell #1 is the definition of schizophrenic madness; it’s entirely possible Carrion does not know what he wants his book to be.  Instead of focusing on the story’s premise (the technology of transplanting human minds into different bodies), Carrion attempts to make Vescell a jack of all trades, but succeeds at absolutely none.  Within thirty all-too-long pages, Carrion bombards readers with poor science fiction themes, monsters, too much biblical commentary, and unabashed sex.

The worst of all offenses, however, is the excessive use of sexual plot-devices.  There is no guiding logic to what the majority of characters choose to do, especially when it seems every character in Vescell is trying their hardest to lose their clothing with partners of the same sex.  To be clear, the inclusion of sex is not the issue at all.  What is offensive, however, is the immature nature of sex within the story.  Instead of being useful to the plot, it comes across as the ramblings of a sexually-repressed early teenager exploring all of the strange ideas within his head. 

John “Roc” Upchurch, likewise, does little to make Vescell a worthwhile purchase.  Character forms can change page to page, and even panel to panel.  The Sexually-repressed M. Gibron, for example, is introduced as a thin and clean-cut businessman, but as the page turns, Gibron mysteriously gains massive amounts of weight and turns into an obese glutton running down the halls of some sexual playground.  The art failures go beyond the inconsistent character forms, moreover.  Often times plot changes occur, but would go unnoticed if not for a character describing the actions within the frame because the art fails to make changes evident.

Vescell #1 is too preoccupied with mashing styles and plots together that it forgets the first part of storytelling: telling a story.  Issue 1 is nothing more than a string of tasteless events and hollow characters.  The basic premise behind Vescell is completely left behind in favor of spotlighting the ridiculous, immature, and illogical.  There is truly nothing redeemable within the pages of Vescell #1.