Reviews the Deathsport Games #1

Another Mark Miller outing, The Deathsport Games has a drastically different tone than Nanny & Hank. This is a dark, serious look at sociopolitics of the future through the lens of today. Three American youths are accused of spying in China and forced to participate in The Deathsport Game, where winners are supposedly granted their freedom.

Yes, the plot is borrowed and cliched, but Miller uses that to his favor, foregoing a lot of exposition and explanation; the reader knows this plot and Miller jumps right into the story. The art, courtesy of Roy Stewart, starts out strong and reminiscent of Bill Sienkiewicz in his heyday, but peters-out toward the end. Stewart resorts to gestures more and more as the book goes on, and the incompleteness of the project shows.

Stewart employs a lot of toner and eschews backgrounds. This is something with which I generally agree, but with the colors, it makes the art look worse in larger panels. The colors, when they work, add more to the art, tone, and atmosphere than even the pencils. But when they do not work, they also add to the clutter -- some panels are all but impossible to make-out, though I am looking at a PDF. Some panels are just downright clumsy and Stewart's greatest weakness is in faces. The action can be hard to follow as well, but this is because you can't tell what's going on.

All in all, Deathsport Games #1 is interesting, but the art needs to be stronger to get a recommendation.

© C Harris Lynn, 2010