Remote has an interesting POV into Double Take’s shared universe. It’s based in the radio station providing news and updates about the zombies. There’s only two characters in the entire issue and only one of them is at the radio station. Our lone reporter finds herself fending off zombies on her own in an attempt to keep the news flowing. After her boss calls, he asks her to keep it up until the night team arrives. He has no clue about the severity of the issue and really down plays it while he’s lavished by women on the other end of the phone. The story reads a bit like a one-shot. We see our lead character Samantha fending off zombies one after the other to keep the news on air, but she’s left in an increasingly dangerous situation. Can she really continue the way she is? I suppose we’ll find out in the next issue.
I actually enjoy the story here. There was a sense of danger and it was nice to see Samantha just handle zombies left and right. She doesn’t hesitate, but rather beats ass. Instead of being pompous or anything, she just keeps going. There’s never that moment in which she stops and pats herself on the back which is good since it would have ruined her character.
That’s what I liked about it. Samantha’s character. I didn’t care for the art that much. There’s times in which it’s pretty good, but overall it’s one of the weakest in the Double Take line. When we meet her boss, he looks like a giant baby smoking a cigar. It was just strange proportions and angles. Samantha and the station zombies are actually pretty well drawn. There’s soft details, but it gave it a distinct look from the rest of the line. It looked the most indie, but it still had some problems. The coloring was too soft. Thankfully the sense of danger rings through because the coloring adds nothing to the atmosphere. This book could really have been special if the coloring was better and the art worked out a bit more.
It’s been a few reviews so this next paragraph is going to be verbatim from my first review, if you read Rise, then you can skip it.
While reading Remote and the other first issues from Double Take, I had this overwhelming sensation of reading a comic for the first time in a long time. I know that sounds weird considering I write reviews for comics every week so I’ll explain. There have always been ads in comics, but we got to the point in which the big two didn’t think they needed ads and didn’t see the benefit of “breaking up the reading experience” and the rest of the industry followed suit. Here’s the thing about ads though… they keep the cost down. All of Double Take’s books are $2.50 and here’s something that even more important… they’re printed on great paper which smooth covers. Let me tell you that when I pick up a Marvel or DC book it feels like I’m holding trash in my hand. I refuse to buy any of their print books because for $3.99 and twenty-two pages, it shouldn’t feel like I’m holding a food wrapper in my hand. Obviously Double Take is a new company and their formula isn’t 100% proven, but I can’t stress enough that I felt like I was reading a comic book since I first got into comic books as an adult. I know, that seems dumb to some. Some that began reading comics after the age of ads, but to me this was a magical experience.
Overall, I think Remote is a different type of comic in general. I’m very curious to see where it’s going and I liked that the location and danger was centralized, I just think that it could have done better with the story’s cliffhanger and the art. Still, I liked it and can see the potential for something different from the series. I also enjoy how much of this comic is used in the rest of the shared universe so it gets kudos for that.
Score: 3/5
Remote #1 – “Dead Air” Story: Colin Mitchell, Bill Jemas, Michael Coast Script: Colin Mitchell Layouts/Pencils: Young Heller, David Wilson Publisher: Double Take Comics Price: $2.50 Format: Ongoing; Print/Digital