Coffin Bound #1 Review
Writer: Dan Watters
Artist: Dani
Colorist: Brad Simpson
Letterer: Aditya Bidikar
Publisher: Image Comics
Coffin Bound is the story of Izzy, who discovers that she is being hunted by a killer which causes her to respond by heading out on a journey to eliminate any trace of her existence. That summary does seem a little silly to me, but the way it is set up in the first handful of pages of Coffin Bound #1 are even more ridiculous, and not in a fun way.
It appears that this debut issue is somewhat self-aware with its almost annoying attempt to make every single thing spoken sound like dark and edgy poetry, but I’m not sure how much is awareness and how much is the writer’s style since I am not familiar with Dan Watters. Unfortunately, even when I read it through the lense that the issue is self-aware, it's still a convoluted mess.
As I mentioned above, the setup is silly and rushed and Izzy’s quest, which is kind of the backbone of the series, is completely unconvincing. She uses a quick story of an old man burning photos as some motivating explanation to why she decided that this was her course of action, but even that small story is unoriginal and forced.
We meet a few characters in this first issue, and they’re pretty much all annoying and uninteresting. The exceptions are obviously the Vulture, who can hopefully make the rest of this story funny enough to save it, and the EarthEater, who, despite his goofy poetic way of speaking, looks awesome.
The artwork is the best part of the issue and not because it’s mind blowing. It fits into the dark atmosphere of the story and is reminiscent of other violent female-lead comic book series. The gore is fun when it appears but it also unfortunately feels pretty forced. Both the artwork and colors would be perfect for a more interesting story that involved a lot of violence and blood.
Coffin Bound reminds me of many Image Comics titles from the last decade but not in a way that makes it feel classic. Instead, it seems incredibly derivative with a hodge-podge of worn-out tropes. It tries very hard to be dark, weird, and exciting, but falls short and just feels like a labored and failed attempt. It is entirely possible the rest of the series will be at least somewhat entertaining, but this first issue doesn’t make me too hopeful.
Artist: Dani
Colorist: Brad Simpson
Letterer: Aditya Bidikar
Publisher: Image Comics
Coffin Bound is the story of Izzy, who discovers that she is being hunted by a killer which causes her to respond by heading out on a journey to eliminate any trace of her existence. That summary does seem a little silly to me, but the way it is set up in the first handful of pages of Coffin Bound #1 are even more ridiculous, and not in a fun way.
It appears that this debut issue is somewhat self-aware with its almost annoying attempt to make every single thing spoken sound like dark and edgy poetry, but I’m not sure how much is awareness and how much is the writer’s style since I am not familiar with Dan Watters. Unfortunately, even when I read it through the lense that the issue is self-aware, it's still a convoluted mess.
As I mentioned above, the setup is silly and rushed and Izzy’s quest, which is kind of the backbone of the series, is completely unconvincing. She uses a quick story of an old man burning photos as some motivating explanation to why she decided that this was her course of action, but even that small story is unoriginal and forced.
We meet a few characters in this first issue, and they’re pretty much all annoying and uninteresting. The exceptions are obviously the Vulture, who can hopefully make the rest of this story funny enough to save it, and the EarthEater, who, despite his goofy poetic way of speaking, looks awesome.
The artwork is the best part of the issue and not because it’s mind blowing. It fits into the dark atmosphere of the story and is reminiscent of other violent female-lead comic book series. The gore is fun when it appears but it also unfortunately feels pretty forced. Both the artwork and colors would be perfect for a more interesting story that involved a lot of violence and blood.
Coffin Bound reminds me of many Image Comics titles from the last decade but not in a way that makes it feel classic. Instead, it seems incredibly derivative with a hodge-podge of worn-out tropes. It tries very hard to be dark, weird, and exciting, but falls short and just feels like a labored and failed attempt. It is entirely possible the rest of the series will be at least somewhat entertaining, but this first issue doesn’t make me too hopeful.
A Look Inside
