By Dustin Cabeal
With a title like Infidel, your comic is going to get a lot of looks. Not necessarily positive ones because I mean do I really have to explain the landscape of society in a review for a comic book? I don’t think so either. At any rate, I recall getting a few comments about this book when I posted the press release, and the concern was how the subject matter was going to be handled.
Frankly, I haven’t a clue. I’m a white dude, big surprise, but I have no clue if a Muslim woman is being written appropriately. It seems like it to me, but then there is also this hugely supernatural element that’s 50% of the focus of the comic book. That’s the part that intrigued me and held my attention from beginning to end.
The issue begins with our main character Aisha lying in bed, eyes wide open while this creepy mangled looking creature crawls from under the bed and starts noming on her neck. I’ve been on the internet; I’m not alone in the irrational fear of never letting your arm hang from your bed while you sleep. This shit made it not so absurd and I have a solid base for a bed frame. Aisha freaks out because fucking hell what else do you do when a goddamn monster is noming on your neck? She rights it off as a dream, but the finds the same glass she broke in the dream, on the floor.
From there we learn that she is a stepmom and she and her family have moved in with her mother-in-law while they find their own place or something. We see a pretty cute scene between Stepmom, stepdaughter, and grandmother. I could care less for all the Star Wars references brought up, but hey get that fanbase excited. The scene comes to a screeching halt when her husband Tom puts him Mom on check when she starts talking about a pork dish. More drama continues throughout the issue, but it’s the creep shit that comes up in-between those moments that genuinely entertain the reader.
One knock against the story is dialogue. The narration, in the beginning, feels completely different from the dialogue which is strange. The opening with the three women is one of the more natural flowing conversations, but the minute Tom arrives and begins yelling the dialogue turns stiff and jagged, worse it never recovers from this. Tom and Aisha’s friend both sound the same when they talk. It gave me the impression that neither is a big part of the story or worse, neither are developed or written very well. If it wasn’t for the creepy ass supernatural elements, it’s doubtful that these weaknesses would be overlooked.
The artwork is lovely, beautiful and magical all at the same time, but it does have its occasional moments of “huh?” During the opening, I couldn’t stop looking at Aisha’s eyes. They were very dominating, but then the next day she looked different. It was kind of strange because it looked like the level of details changed or as if they were drawn months apart. Tom is, strangely enough, the only character that lacked any page presence. The rest of the characters are very realistic, and I was amazed to see how well drawn the clothing was in the issue. Not only that, but it was modern fashion, I’m a huge fan of this in comics because it still feels so rare. Even when some attempt it, it just seems like eventually everyone ends up in plain t-shirts and jackets. The details for the little girl’s face were also consistently lacking. In one panel she looks completely out of place compared to Aisha, and it was honestly distracting.
Infidel has a lot going for it with its supernatural element. The characters are in need of some major developing, but we’ll see if the writer finds the balance between developing them and keeping things creepy as hell. It might not even matter after this issue, but we’ll see. There’s a lot of other elements to the comic that are there, but not playing a substantial role in the plot just yet. They feel like they’re just there to help ground the story in our world, but if they develop into something else, that will definitely help the plot. It's an entertaining issue, but I’m far from sold on it at the moment. Creepiness aside, there are concerns that need to be addressed.
Score: 3/5
Infidel #1
Image Comics