Comic Review- Scarlet #1

[bedsitter23]

Scarlet (2018-) #1 by Brian Bendis

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


We're getting our deluge of Bendis. This one last week and two this week. Crap, you know I am a total mark for Bendis, what can I do?

Scarlet relaunches a concept Bendis launched eight (?) years ago. It was a pretty great concept- something that had hints of what he has done before but was really unique. While the concept was so ambitious, Bendis was swinging pretty hard, he generally pulled it off.

Which gives me mixed feelings on relaunching. It's hard to read thus issue without thinking "Hey, I have been here before", and while I loved the book, it's a pretty narrow road, that I felt I traveled to the end.

So ultimately, it seems kind of pointless. Which doesn't mean the same thing as worthless. It starts with a bang- a booming manifesto, and it's got Alex Maleev who generally is a great compliment to Bendis.

Still, at times it felt flat. There's the deja vu, the usual nonsense that I have included in my recent Bendis reviews (like it's pretty dependent on the main character; and the issue starts with a bang but ends with a bit of a whimper) , and there's something a bit off with Maleev this time (another reviewer blamed the colors, which may be it).

In any case, all that, but especially the deja vu- which seems Bendis has painted himself in a corner to start. Where does he go from here? Also, while Scarlet is a character, the whole thing seems fairly reminiscent of the comics Brian Wood writes (and some recent tangentially related quite frankly better characters from the likes of Ed Brubaker and Greg Rucka who simply are outwriting Bendis). Bendis clearly wants ambition and revolution but can he still achieve it.

I do admit that I was kind of excited to see this one relaunch, and I certainly will see it through, but my excitement is very much tempered with my concerns above. If I was strapped for time and cash would I pick it up, I don't know.



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