“Sirens” from George Perez with BOOM! Studios, certainly plays to their strengths. The colors are vivid, the character designs appealing, the protagonists mostly complex, strong, and female. However, it also jumps all over the known universe through time and mythology, completely unpredictably. If that sounds like a fun romp, I’m sorry, because while I find the concept delightful, in practice it’s a little confusing and off-putting. Any first issue of a serialized narrative has a lot to contend with, and chief among those is the challenge of introducing a fully fleshed out universe concisely so that the story can move on. In Sirens, this aspect of the storytelling feels rushed, jumbled, and hard to follow.
WRITTEN BY: George Perez
ART BY: George Perez
PUBLISHER: BOOM! Studios
PRICE: $2.99
RELEASE: September 17, 2014
Reviewed By: Katy Rex
Using a technique common in team comics, the issue starts with each team member in a different time/space, and follows some small slice of her life as she begins to encounter the/a Big Bad. And in many cases, this setup requires the audience to be patient and trust that it will make sense—and it is then the job of the story to reassure the audience that their trust is well-placed. In “Sirens,” every time something starts to make sense, the reality seems to shift just a little, so your assumptions are wrong and any understanding you had is gone. This doesn’t keep the reader on their toes, or introduce a charming lack of predictability, or create an aura of uncertainty in a way that is fun and eerie. It’s just confusing and convoluted.
The narrative starts by following an adventuring woman who is seeking (and who discovers) a dragon, with whom she can communicate. Then they’re in space, and then they’re in the old west, but the characters are different? Like I said, hard to follow.
I’m inclined to give this story more than one issue to make up my mind. I want it to be good. I love stories that are populated, largely, by strong and interesting female characters. I love the fusion of sci-fi and fantasy, I love the things-are-more-than-what-they-seem vibe. It’s a really pretty book with a really interesting premise. I’m hoping, with very little reason to hope, that this is just suffering from first-issue-itis, that next issue they’ll solve all the jumping around because the characters will be together, that next issue there will be enough of the universe established that the constantly establishing reality won’t be quite so jarring.
There’s a pretty good chance that issue #2 of “Sirens” could make issue #1 less confusing, less convoluted, less confounding. The problems I see with this issue aren’t unresolvable. But unless it starts taking those steps, this is not a comic I would recommend. If you’re thinking of picking it up, wait. Issue #2 comes out November 19th, and hopefully that’s when it starts to get good.
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Katy Rex writes comics analysis at endoftheuniversecomics.com, comicsbulletin.com, and bloody-disgusting.com. She also writes scholarly articles for various academic journals. She really likes butt jokes, dinosaurs, and killing psychos and midgets in Borderlands 2. She has a great sense of humor if you’re not an asshole.