Possession – Issues #1 and #2 Review.
I love going into a story blind. Some of my best movie or reading experiences I’ve had have been with material I knew nothing about. I was fortunate enough with Possession to be handed the first two issues without knowing anything about them. I sat down and burned through them ready for more.
Possession is a modern superhero comic book with a noir-ish edge.Pulling its influences from greek mythology, punk rock and “kinky sex” Possession is indented for a mature audience.
Indie comics…..well, indie anything really….can be a rocky affair. Sometimes they are hidden gems of talent awaiting discovery. Other times its painfully obvious why it hasn’t been picked up by a major distributor. Possession falls more on the former than the later. It is a solid comic book that while not perfect, is very entertaining.
Initially I was surprised by the quality of the illustrations. The artwork is somewhat reminiscent of Humberto Ramos. It has that same blend of grit and realism mixed with more traditional exaggerated comic flare. The coloring in particular is well above your standard indie fare. With very few exceptions each panel is professionally done and just a joy to look at. Some of the action sequences didn’t hold the grandeur or intensity that the story implied. But, the lacking wasn’t so intense that it hurt the story.
In contrast, some of the more intimate scenes were beautifully done. The compositions and illustrations themselves do a great job to facilitate the intrigue or horror of certain scenes.
The writing in Possession ranges from perfunctory to really quite good. The greatest failing of the first two issues is a sense of abruptness. There are moments where the writing suffers in order to keep the story moving. There is a lot of ground to cover and only so many pages to cover it in. Questionable dialogue or jumps in logic are used in order to keep the pacing. This is an issue that dogs the medium as a whole at times. Some of the biggest names and properties have struggled with this as well so it seems a little unfair to point it out, but it is there. Hopefully as the groundwork for the greater mythology is laid out the story will get a bit more time to breath.
The characters are interesting and varied. There lives are tangled in a nice mix of modern day minuta and classical mythology. There is a feeling similar to Neil Gaiman in the way the characters and the mythology present themselves. Readers are just given the right about of detail plot and characters to keep us a little confused, but interested. We know enough about the mythology to understand what is going on but not necessarily the importance of it.
The comic has been described as “[a story] about mythology, and superheroes, and punk rock, and kinky sex”-. And they’re not wrong. Sex and sexuality feature prevenlantly in the story. And while the nudity is graphic it isn’t necessarily pornographic. Going into the story blind I didn’t have any preconceived notions of what the story was going to be. The nudity and sex are a little surprising at first, but they feel integral to the story. It is handled in a way that isn’t seedy nor overly erotic. The story is a complex as a mature comic should be. There seems to be no limit to what the story will allow. This is a comic that is going to follow the characters anywhere and everywhere. So far, that seems to be a good thing.
Overall, the first two issues of Possession are a strong start to an potentially interesting story. Fans of Crimson, Fables, Sandman, and other horror/mythology based comics should check this title out. Though keep in mind this is for adults only. You can get Possession here on Comixology or DriveThruComics.
