TEAM 14 #1

Writers: Alp Altiner

Artwork: Alp Altiner, Rick Basaldua, Victor Lammas

Publisher: Digital Webbing/Bionic Unit

Greg's Review:

             Another new comic, Team 14, from another new company, Digital Webbing: will it last more than two issues? If art has any bearing on sales, it should! The art in this comic is stunning! If, however, it is an interesting and exciting story that drives your purchasing dollar, you may well get the first issue and say “no thanks!” after that.

            Team 14 is created, written and pencilled by Alp Altiner, who seems to be the guiding light for this new company, under his own personal imprint, Bionic Unit. Alp’s background is Visual FX Artist in the film industry. A search of IMDb reveals Alp as having worked on a number of our favourite films: Superman Returns, Spiderman 3, X-Men 3, Fantastic Four, Fantastic Four 2, Van Helsing, 300, The Day After Tomorrow and The Invasion, as well as Whiteout, the [as at August ‘08] yet-to-be-released-in-Australia film based on Greg Rucka’s graphic novel and starring the delightful Kate Beckinsale.

            The inking is by Alp, Rick Basaldua and Victor Lammas. The colour [stunning!] is by Blond [sic!] with [I’m assuming] assistance from Joel Chua and Alp (… again! He’s nothing if not versatile!). The lettering, by Johnny Hartmann, looks computer generated, but extremely well executed. [If I’m wrong, Johnny, I’d have to say you’re awesome!]

            So, what’s wrong with the story? Well, to make no bones about it, there just isn’t a story; the whole comic is about its back history! The concept, in itself, is intriguing: a team set up within the FBI by agent John McHenry some “25 years ago” to investigate crimes related to a particular large number of murders involving horrifically mutilated corpses. As investigations continued, it was “discovered” that there was a “paranormal” component to the crimes and the perpetrators seemed to be “GHOSTS” (to quote from page 6).

            We are introduced to a number of the team members and couple of the enemy entities (with a more detailed description of them being given following the 20 pages of “story”) but there is very little connection between the characters and their images, except on pages 11 and 13, where they are first introduced. The only recognizable person in the comic so far is the John McHenry character.

            While I hate to knock something so beautifully drawn, I can’t, as a writer, praise a story that breaks the most fundamental of rules of storytelling: “Show, don’t tell!” And despite the stunning visual form of the comic, what we are being given here is basically a telling.

            Alp Altiner would have been better rewarded (and the readers too) by getting out the first three or four issues of the comic wherein we were introduced to the characters during their investigations of such crimes. [Remember the first episode of The X-Files! Didn’t that blow our minds away? In much the same way as did Heroes and Lost.] All the elements given in this first issue would not have been available to readers; still, they could have been introduced bit by bit. Remember: readers are intelligent and sophisticated; they can work out lots of stuff for themselves. Once a readership had been established, a “Half” or “Zero” issue could have been produced to give us the unexposed elements of the back-story. By then, however, it may not even have been necessary. This issue # 1 is basically a concept wrapped in a beautifully produced package. Without a decent storyline, it can go no further.

            For me the jury is still out. Based on the concept and the amazing art, I’m prepared to buy issue # 2 and see if Alp Altiner knows what he’s doing. But if that doesn’t cut it for me, I’m out of there!

Story: * (out of 5)

Artwork: ***** (out of 5)

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