Noble Causes #34 - Advance Review

The images you are seeing are from an advance copy of Image Comics' Noble Causes #34 I received sometime back (as with all images on The Rundown, simply click to enlarge).

Not being a regular reader of the series, it took me some time to read through the issue, get an idea of what was going on, and rectify it with what I read of the series on Wikipedia. Needless to say, the Noble Causes storyline is a thick and tangled one, involving two families and several years' worth of mini-series and one-shots, as well as the ongoing series. Plus, the story was recently moved forward some five years into the future, according to Wikipedia.

While I was a little lost, Noble Causes #34 makes it easy enough to get the gist of things, but there's an awful lot going on which is unexplained. My best comparison for Noble Causes is that it's the comic book version of Dynasty: a Dallas or Falcon Crest with superheroes. The Nobles are an affluential family of superheroes whose arch-nemeses, the Blackthornes, are their negative counterparts; Noble Causes follows the ongoing feud between the two.

There is a lot of plotting and intrigue, as Noble Causes pushes the superheroic aspects into the background to focus on the families' interpersonal relationships, which - again - are a thick and tangled subject. Rife with duplicity and treachery, it's almost impossible to know who is on whose side, and the history goes back so far that new readers will be forced to buy a few back issues and follow the series for at least 2-3 months to truly get a handle on things.

Honestly, Noble Causes is not my cup of tea; I much preferred Faerber's Gemini, which is a straightforward boobs-and-brawn title, to this one. However, there are a lot of similarities between the two. Maybe it's just the spark of a new project, but in comparing the two, Gemini is far more fun - more adventurous and easier to relate to. Nary a cliché is left unturned in either, but where Gemini makes them seem fresh and uplifting, Noble Causes' clichés seem forced and requisite. It's as if Faerber sat at his plotting desk and said, "This is what readers expect, so I'll give them that, and they won't be expecting this, so I'll throw it in for good measure."

The artwork is deft and detailed - an excellent fit for Image - but the usual hyper-photorealism is muted. There is an emphasis on storytelling and design, as the action is sparse, though there is some. There are a lot of two-shots and medium pans and I think artist, Yildiray Cinar, should spend more time watching movies to see how these tight dramas are photographed; Cinar plays the close-ups close to the vest for dramatic effect, but ignores the use of shading as a tool in this regard. This is one of the few Image titles where I can actually suggest more crosshatching! (Mark your calendars, because that's definitely a first!) As to that point, in fact, lighting is almost negligible here, to the detriment of the narration. A lack of backgrounds also weakens the work. Overall though, it is nice, and since story is key to Noble Causes, interested readers will easily be able to forgive these points.

If you enjoy political intrigue along the lines of feudal royalty, you will find Noble Causes refreshing - it is a Shakespearean melodrama of the highest caliber, insofar as comics titles go. I find it reminiscent of Uncanny X-Men in its late-70s to early-80s heyday, sans the streetwise whimsy, especially since it reprises so many of the same plot points and developments. (And, speaking of whimsy, Faerber could do with some comedic relief here and there - the utter lack thereof makes it a dry read.) But if you are looking for more straightforward superhero fare, Noble Causes is not it.

I can't recommend this one, but again, this is due to my personal taste, not the quality of the work.

© C Harris Lynn, 2008