WildStorm's Supernatural Origins - A Review

A few months back, I told you you could safely skip Supernatural: Origins from WildStorm. That was based only on issue #2 and I was apologetic about saying it, given that the show is currently my favorite thing on TV, but I meant it. So I was a little shocked to discover this month's CBG listing it as a "hit." Not, mind you, because I said it blew, but because I assumed that if I didn't like it - and am a very vocal fan of the show - other fans probably felt the same. I mean, I really wanted to like it and didn't, so I kind of figured other fans would think the same. Fans of a particular TV show, comics team, RPG, or whatever, tend to have similar tastes - at least when it pertains to that particular subject - so I was pleasantly surprised to learn that I may have been wrong and decided I'd give the title another shot.

So I'm up to like issue #5 right now and I can expound upon my previous critique. But be forewarned, at the end of the day, it's still a poor showing:

Supernatural: Origins is actually fairly well-written and I guess I did miss that the first time around. But in my defense, a single issue of such an epic and operatic story is rarely a good indicator of the writing; art can generally be judged by a single page.

Yes, Supernatural: Origins actually is well-scripted, but it has to be; Supernatural has to be twice as well-written as anything else on the market because the art is so piss-poor! And I hit that nail right on the head in my first review.

The art is not just rushed, it is not just clunky - it is downright bad. If this were not sequential art, it would be bad for illustration; if it were not illustration, it would be too dark to hang on a refrigerator. It's truly that bad.

We don't have to get into a technical lecture here for me to tell you that sequential art is about art in sequence - art which tells a story. Not only does the artwork in Supernatural Origins fail on those merits, it fails on being aesthetically pleasing, it fails at being anatomically correct, it fails at imparting action, it fails at pacing; it fails on all points. It is simply really bad artwork and I do not understand how it made it into a professional-level publication.

And just in case you think I'm being hard on it, you really owe it to me to check it out before you criticize my critique. Really anyone could have done as good, or better, a job as this, and Supernatural is a hot property, so I don't know if all the other artists were too busy with their own schedules or what, but WS really should have done a better job on finding an artist for this otherwise decent title.

Aside from the art, the writing falls apart toward the end of the series. I'm not sure if the team simply ran out of steam or started off with too much material for the scope of the run, but a lot is crammed into the last couple issues and it comes across as a rushed ending. Again, I could blame this on the art, since comics are a collaborative process; it's possible that the writer went back in to do dialogue after the panels were drawn and struggled to make something fit. At any rate, the ending makes little sense and all of the suspense and intrigue building up to it goes right out the window. The ending is cliched and you saw it coming from about issue 3.

A real disappointment, all the way around.