A review, folks.

Icaro volume 1

Writer: Moebius

Art: Jiro Taniguchi

I sometimes read Manga. No, thats not true. For most of my sequential reading days, I have only occasionally read manga. Its not that manga isn't good. Its just that I am not very good. No thats not true. I am brilliant. But the fact remains that for most of my sequential reading days, I have not been a very discerning reader. Biff, bam, pow was enough for me. Or you know, Batman. I seem to have changed now, regretting the older me, regretting the older me's taste. As I was saying, I have read very few manga, and I realise that manga isn't a very good word for what is essentially comics. Of course there are those who would bring out all the nuances in form that differentiate the two, but really, both are sequential imagery, bound in a narrative. Obviously they have to be marketed as manga, to appeal to anime fans, who certainly form a large part of the market, and the term has remained.

Anyway, so I was reading a manga by two very good creators. Unfortunately, I haven't actually read anything from Moebius, which is a shame, but I have seen a lot of his artwork and they certainly affirm his status as among the form's greatest creators. Taniguchi on the other hand was the writer/artist of the manga A Distant Neighbourhood, which I have read. On a tangent, isn't it odd that we read comics. We watch movies, look at art, photographs, read prose and verse, but also read comics. Shouldn't there be another word for what we do with comics. Tangent over. A Distant Neighbourhood was fine. Interesting idea which often led the story to become creepy, but by not delving on things for too long, the creepy factor was glossed over. Great artist though. More detailed than manga art usually is. I liked it just fine.

Reading through Icaro I had some of the same problems, that I had with A Distant Neighbourhood. Now this has a different writer, a much more accomplished one at that. But there are problems. Moebius says in the introduction, stories are being strangled, but have one unadulterated outlet, dreams. And this story comes out of his dream. I think he should have left it there. The story that follows is that of a boy who's born with the power of flight. There's some stupid mumbo-jumbo science that is popped in there that makes no sense. Really, there's no turbulence. Really, what Reynolds' number are we talking about. Really. Nah, as I said, its mumbo-jumbo. But the point is, there's no point. Here's a trapped hero, who the government traps to make him their ultimate villain, while a bunch of exploding people, explode. The boy feels lonely but there's this one girl, who is his psychatrist. Well kind of. Is it just me, or have I heard aoo of this before.

There's no point, at all. The mum gets separated from the boy at birth, and we don't get to know anything about her. None. Nada. There's a lesbian relationship, between ostensibly the big bad and her secretary. And there's voyeurism by the hero. Yeah, cause he was not edgy and stuff. There was a neat sequence at the beggining where I thought that this would be a unique story, when there are all these people who have black eyes, you know the type where the whole eye becomes black, which has been used as many times as this plot. And these people go around in trains, on the sidewalk and their eyes turn black, and they explode. At this point I thought these are just people who are frustrated of their banal lives, and they wish everything exploded. But thats what literally happened. They exploded. And its not for their jobs. Nope, they are terrorists. Superhumans. They show their superiorty to humans by exploding. Did Micheal Bay write this?

The kid is born, and grows up and he can lift 150 Kilos. Wow. Thats awesome. And he can withstand air at 60 metres/sec. Awesome. Thats why I was reading this thing. To know how strong he's compared to Wolverine. And then suddenly he disappears. And then he does his voyeur thing. And he's captured before he can kiss the girl. Wow, was I reading a wolverine comic. Sure felt like one. Is Icaro Japanese for wolverine. Sure hope not. Its pretty much shallow to its core. (Haha) At this point I am not even interested in saying anything about the art. Its detailed, tells the story. But there's hardly any story to tell. Will I read more of this Michael Bay Wolverine comic? Maybe. Cause I am a sucker.