By Dustin Cabeal

By no means does Robert Kirkman need my praise. I’m not going to pat him on the back for still making comics and all that noise. He’s a writer I’ve drifted away from because his style has developed into a steady rhythm. It’s not bad, it's just not amazing either. It’s consistent, but you tend to know what you’re getting with your characters and just waiting for the twists to happen.

That is a hundred percent the goal of Oblivion Song #1. It establishes the characters, the world, the plot and reveals a twist. Unfortunately, none of it is that original and a lot of this issue reads like a condensed TV script. I’m not bagging on Kirkman because he does TV and all that. He’s earned his success and again, I don’t need to praise him for still writing comics. It’s just that Oblivion Song seems the most affected by his TV writing.

It’s a tight story that begins with Nathan. He’s in a hellish landscape, with two people running from a monster. He shoots one of them and they disappear, which freaks out the woman he was with. He eventually shoots her too and she disappears. This leaves him and the monster to do that survival dance. Since I introduced Nathan, you should assume he survives and the story continues. Once he’s zapped himself we learn that he’s just rescued these two people and they were “over there” for a decade. The story continues to reveal slight details about what “over there” is and why Nathan is risking his life to find people. There’s some politics, there’s a personal agenda and really every other checkbox you’d need or want from a first issue.

That’s the thing, I can’t nor will I deny that this is a perfect issue in terms of introducing everything you need introduced. New writers can study this issue and see what to do, but it should be more entertaining than educational. In other words, it’s not perfect from the entertainment perspective.  It’s just that it’s too sterile. It’s by the books and lacks a lot of personality, no matter how much Kirkman tries to interject personality into it. The bar scene did nothing. The yelling between lovers did nothing. It all feels superficial. The idea feels inspired and guided by other stories rather than Kirkman flipping a genre on its head. This issue is digestible for sure, but it’s a far cry from amazing or the “next big thing” in comics.

Collaborating with Kirkman is Lorenzo De Felici. The art on the cover is a bit more impressive than the interior art. There’s a fair amount of details to the linework, but at times the details fade, and simplicity is favored. It’s not a bad style, but it’s one that can drive you crazy with its inconsistencies. The action sequences are decent, but the shooting and disappearing was confusing as it wasn’t highlighted enough by the artwork. It looks like a scene jump rather than a disappearance. The emotions the characters display are convincing and soften the feeling of the drama being forced.

There’s still something intriguing here and I’ll be back to read more of Oblivion Song. The new trend in comics seems to be safe first issues that excite the reader just enough to bring them back and then to wow them with the second issue. We’ll see if that’s true here. If you’re a fan of Kirkman’s this is an easy sell. It’s vintage Kirkman and he’s found a balance between the Apocalypse and the modern world. His writing is comfortable here and he has a talented artist guiding the story. The flip side of this is that if you're tired of Kirkman’s writing, this isn’t likely to bring you back to his books.

Score: 3/5

Oblivion Song #1
Image/Skybound