Collective Consciousness: Rose #1
Welcome back to Collective Consciousness, our weekly article where the staff takes one comic and puts it under the microscope. This allows us, and you, faithful reader, to get a good idea of how the comic fares against a variety of opinions. This week we're taking a look at new series from Image Comics, Rose #1.
Image solicit: “A classic fantasy tale about a girl trying to restore balance to a broken world. Rose must connect with her Khat-Thorne-to become the Guardian the world needs. But things aren't easy for Rose and Thorne, the powerful sorcerous Drucilla has many powerful and demonic allies-all of them focused on stopping one scared little girl who's desperately trying to stay alive and do what's right.”
Written by: Meredith Finch
Art by: Ig Guara
Publisher: Image Comics
Jason James
I'm not huge into swords and sorcery stuff, but this was actually a pretty good story. It flowed nicely and was an easy to follow read. The story hit all the right introductory It had pretty good art that was well done for the genre. The character design was interesting and might have been the highlight for me. I liked it more than I thought I would. The cover was pretty cool as well. The book begins with an open letter from the writer expressing her thanks to the various people in her life. I'm a sucker for that stuff; it makes me want to see the book succeed. I enjoyed the whole package.
Hussein Al-Wasiti
There are so many fantasy books at Image right now, and a new series needs a great hook to really get into it. Green Valley has its weird premise that I won't spoil for you. Reborn has its alternate heaven concept which has been working quite well so far. Rose? It's concept is a very basic one, where the last magic user of the kingdom is hunted down by its evil Queen, who also has magical powers.
The story and the writing were both very cliché. I didn't care for the characters one bit. Our main character, Rose, is given no discernable personality. Her village is burned down by the Queen's forces and Rose's mother dies in the process. I don't understand why this had to happen in this issue. I wanted more time with Rose and her mother, to see their relationship set against the political schemes of the Queen character. Set up the ideologies of both characters so their eventual confrontation has some set-up, and some payoff. Since Rose is the last good magic user, a Guardian, she is the only person powerful enough to take down the Queen.
This whole issue was generic. Even Ig Guara's art, whose work I normally like, didn't work for me. The world created by the writer and artist didn't wow me in any way. This was a quick read, which Image books usually aren't, so it's not even worth the money.
Personally, I wouldn't even check out the second issue. Give this a pass.
Image solicit: “A classic fantasy tale about a girl trying to restore balance to a broken world. Rose must connect with her Khat-Thorne-to become the Guardian the world needs. But things aren't easy for Rose and Thorne, the powerful sorcerous Drucilla has many powerful and demonic allies-all of them focused on stopping one scared little girl who's desperately trying to stay alive and do what's right.”
Written by: Meredith Finch
Art by: Ig Guara
Publisher: Image Comics
Jason James
I'm not huge into swords and sorcery stuff, but this was actually a pretty good story. It flowed nicely and was an easy to follow read. The story hit all the right introductory It had pretty good art that was well done for the genre. The character design was interesting and might have been the highlight for me. I liked it more than I thought I would. The cover was pretty cool as well. The book begins with an open letter from the writer expressing her thanks to the various people in her life. I'm a sucker for that stuff; it makes me want to see the book succeed. I enjoyed the whole package.
Hussein Al-Wasiti
There are so many fantasy books at Image right now, and a new series needs a great hook to really get into it. Green Valley has its weird premise that I won't spoil for you. Reborn has its alternate heaven concept which has been working quite well so far. Rose? It's concept is a very basic one, where the last magic user of the kingdom is hunted down by its evil Queen, who also has magical powers.
The story and the writing were both very cliché. I didn't care for the characters one bit. Our main character, Rose, is given no discernable personality. Her village is burned down by the Queen's forces and Rose's mother dies in the process. I don't understand why this had to happen in this issue. I wanted more time with Rose and her mother, to see their relationship set against the political schemes of the Queen character. Set up the ideologies of both characters so their eventual confrontation has some set-up, and some payoff. Since Rose is the last good magic user, a Guardian, she is the only person powerful enough to take down the Queen.
This whole issue was generic. Even Ig Guara's art, whose work I normally like, didn't work for me. The world created by the writer and artist didn't wow me in any way. This was a quick read, which Image books usually aren't, so it's not even worth the money.
Personally, I wouldn't even check out the second issue. Give this a pass.
A Look Inside
