‘Breed is probably my least favorite of Jim Starlin’s recent work (if the first two mid-nineties Bravura mini-series can be considered “recent”), but I liked the first issue of the third mini more than I remember liking any of the previous two (which I have read only once each). I’m sure some might classify this issue as an “information dump,” but I think it’s more than that. Starlin is using the same narrative device he used in Infinity Abyss by employing a framing device set in the present to narrate a story told entirely in flashback. By the end of issue number one, the flashback is still being told, but I expect the story to “catch up to itself” in another issue or maybe two. The flashback not only recaps the two previous series, but it also fills in events which have happened since then (and which apparently occur in “real time”). If you like Jim Starlin but haven’t read the two previous series, you shouldn’t worry about it not let it deter you from trying ‘Breed III #1. If I were editor of this series, I would have left the “III” off the tile altogether. If Dreadstar #1 had been labeled “Part Four of the Metamorphosis Odyssey” I might never have tried it.
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Starlin is right there at the top of my favorite artist/writer list but he lost me with the Metamorphosis Odyssey when it was running in Epic Illustrated. I have heard good things about Dreadstar so maybe one of these days when I'm shopping the back issue sites I'll pick up an issue or two.
Both MO and the first dozen or so issues of the ongoing have been collected (by Dynamite, I think). It started topeter out and become repetative toward the end of the Epic run, but was reinvigorated by its move to First. Shortly thereafter, Starlin wrote only, with art by Luke McDonnel, and those issues didn't appeal to me as much. After that, Peter David took over and the quality shot up a bit, but I don't consider those stories to be in true continuity (like the Sable issues by Marv Wolfman). Peter David also wrote some Dreadstar (featuring the original character's daughter) for Malibu. Both writers had over-arching stories which were left uncompleted.
ISSUE #2: The flashback-within-a-framing-sequence technique continues. Starlin points out the inherent shortcomings of the technique by ending the issue on a cliffhanger and having one of the characters in the framing sequence observe, “Well, our storyteller obviously survived his little encounter,” but attempts to account for it by having the main character say, “Yeah, it’spretty self-evident that I made it through my deathmatch with the alien ‘Breed relatively intact, but what’s really interesting, though, is how I survived and what I learned along the way.”
Also, Rush Limbaugh and Dick Cheney are revealed as two of many human collaborators serving the ‘Breed.
ISSUE #3: I said at the top of this thread that 'Breed is probably my least favorite of Jim Starlin's recent work. that's probably because I had forgotten about Wyrd. And it's not really that Wyrd is so bad, but just that I tend to forget about it. Imagine my surprise, then, when in this issue, Starlin's "reluctant" mystic warrior makes a four-page cameo appearance!
Wyrd always was my least favorite Starlin creation. Visually, he was just a shorter less bald Syzygy Darklock, and I'd had enough at the time of the "reluctant hero" trope that was permeating a lot of comics at the time.
"Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read." -Groucho Marx
Check out theSecret Headquarters(my store) website! Comics and Games for Everyone!
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Both MO and the first dozen or so issues of the ongoing have been collected (by Dynamite, I think). It started topeter out and become repetative toward the end of the Epic run, but was reinvigorated by its move to First. Shortly thereafter, Starlin wrote only, with art by Luke McDonnel, and those issues didn't appeal to me as much. After that, Peter David took over and the quality shot up a bit, but I don't consider those stories to be in true continuity (like the Sable issues by Marv Wolfman). Peter David also wrote some Dreadstar (featuring the original character's daughter) for Malibu. Both writers had over-arching stories which were left uncompleted.
Also, Rush Limbaugh and Dick Cheney are revealed as two of many human collaborators serving the ‘Breed.
ISSUE #3: I said at the top of this thread that 'Breed is probably my least favorite of Jim Starlin's recent work. that's probably because I had forgotten about Wyrd. And it's not really that Wyrd is so bad, but just that I tend to forget about it. Imagine my surprise, then, when in this issue, Starlin's "reluctant" mystic warrior makes a four-page cameo appearance!
"Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read." -Groucho Marx
Check out the Secret Headquarters (my store) website! Comics and Games for Everyone!
I used to listen to WOXY.com; It was the future of rock-n-roll! RIP WOXY
Yeah, it worked well for me too.
I wonder if he had planned that at their creations, or if it came to him as he was thinking about this series.
"Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read." -Groucho Marx
Check out the Secret Headquarters (my store) website! Comics and Games for Everyone!
I used to listen to WOXY.com; It was the future of rock-n-roll! RIP WOXY
The solicitation for #6 says, "SORRY, WE CAN'T SHOW YOU THIS COVER. You'll see why when the book comes out."
Hmm...
Crap.I can't think of any properties that Starlin owns that would merit this kind of warning except for Dreadstar and Company.
I may need to try and pull some strings here.
"Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read." -Groucho Marx
Check out the Secret Headquarters (my store) website! Comics and Games for Everyone!
I used to listen to WOXY.com; It was the future of rock-n-roll! RIP WOXY
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