Review By: Connor Russell
This was a series I was never too sure whether I wanted to read it or not. I mean the covers all looked pretty awesome; my favorite is probably the one for issue two by Mike Mignola. I've never really read any detective driven stories before but for me, this hasn't sold the genre to me.
The story? There is a detective by the name of Oxel, and he has a condition known as acromegaly. Basically a growth defect where your body can just continue to grow (so he has a huge jaw). He is contacted by his high school sweetheart to help investigate the suicide of her son as she believes it was suspicious. The rest of the series follows Oxel as he tries to piece it all together while struggling with some of his inner demons.
The series was written by John Arcudi (Major Bummer), someone whose work I had never read before. The pacing was well done and the story was alright but I feel the main place where this story failed was with the characters. They annoyed me and I didn't feel connected to any of them. Oxel, the main character, I felt nothing for him or his struggles. I don't know if his physical condition was meant to drive anything but to me it kind of felt slapped on. All major characters came across as very two dimensional to me. So I was disappointed with that.
Art was tackled by Jonathan Case (Green River Killer). Describing art is something I always find hard to do. It is a cartoon, almost retro style, akin to that of Mike Allred. I don't mind that style sometimes but the art just fell flat with me.
As I said at the beginning I wasn't sure about reading this series and I went in with no expectations. But to me this series fell with pretty much all of it. The story wasn't that great and the resolution, the “solve” of the mystery was meant to be tragic but having read five issues with lacking characters, I felt nothing. Nothing to me stood out. Before, I mentioned how the acromegaly felt slapped on, maybe if there was a second series that delved a little more into this and its effects on the protagonist, I may be a little more invested.
Look I'm not going to say don't buy it, this series could be right up your ally. But this is my opinion, take it as you like.
Score: 2/5
Writer: John Arcudi
Artist: Jonathan Case
Publisher: Dark Horse Comics
Price: $19.99
Release Date: 4/24/13