Post by Meriades Rai on Aug 3, 2009 7:55:52 GMT -5
Last year some time I set out to read (and review) Generation X by new writer William Sinclair but I faltered pretty quickly. The characters did nothing for me and I found my attention drifting - which was annoying, because I really liked the writing style. I was delighted, therefore, to learn that William’s new Captain Britain series was imminent, and the first issue hasn’t disappointed.
Very little happens in this debut issue - we get a glimpse of an apocalyptic alternate England, we get some introspection from Brian Braddock and we get some Psylocke versus demon action in Tokyo - and, to be honest, that latter element saves the issue from being overly-stodgy. William’s writing is quite dense, very descriptive and internal, and whilst I personally quite like that, it probably isn’t to everyone’s tastes. Fortunately Williams can also write some stonking action sequences, and the Psylocke interludes kick the story into gear when it’s most needed; I’d even go so far to say as I was far more interested in Elisabeth as a character than her brother, although I’m sure Brian will become less sedentary as the series progresses.
William sets a scene extremely well, and my delight at seeing the destruction of my arse of a hometown Northampton (cheers!) was matched only by the way it was described. There’s a lot of foreshadowing at work here, which is always good, and there’s a sense that this series will be less jocular than what I’ve read of Paul Cornell’s MI-13 ‘real’ Marvel title (and Excalibur come to that, which is a series I never enjoyed). So far there’s also a complete lack of English-isms to the accents and whatnot, which is another plus. I *hate* false accents in dialogue, drives me nuts.
One criticism, and one that had me utterly dumbfounded considering the overall top-notch quality of the writing, is that the word ‘to’ is mistakenly replaced by ‘too’ throughout almost the entire text (and I seem to remember I found that in Generation X as well). It makes it impossible to get fully immersed in the narrative, which is a shame, as the denser sections of prose - mainly those involving Brian - would have been more involving without that constant error. Too should be used for also or overly (as in, ‘he ate the bacon too’ or ‘the bacon was too salty’) but otherwise it should always be to, with one ‘o’. When you read sentence after sentence of the likes of ‘crumbling too dust before his very eyes’ it really is impossible to gloss over the mistake, and I’d suggest it would make a world of difference to the issue to be thoroughly edited for this one foible (by either William or a fresh pair of eyes) and then re-loaded to the site. I believe it would make a 7/10 issue into a 9/10 one, it’s *that* glaring.
Otherwise, great start to the series. Looking forward to more.
Very little happens in this debut issue - we get a glimpse of an apocalyptic alternate England, we get some introspection from Brian Braddock and we get some Psylocke versus demon action in Tokyo - and, to be honest, that latter element saves the issue from being overly-stodgy. William’s writing is quite dense, very descriptive and internal, and whilst I personally quite like that, it probably isn’t to everyone’s tastes. Fortunately Williams can also write some stonking action sequences, and the Psylocke interludes kick the story into gear when it’s most needed; I’d even go so far to say as I was far more interested in Elisabeth as a character than her brother, although I’m sure Brian will become less sedentary as the series progresses.
William sets a scene extremely well, and my delight at seeing the destruction of my arse of a hometown Northampton (cheers!) was matched only by the way it was described. There’s a lot of foreshadowing at work here, which is always good, and there’s a sense that this series will be less jocular than what I’ve read of Paul Cornell’s MI-13 ‘real’ Marvel title (and Excalibur come to that, which is a series I never enjoyed). So far there’s also a complete lack of English-isms to the accents and whatnot, which is another plus. I *hate* false accents in dialogue, drives me nuts.
One criticism, and one that had me utterly dumbfounded considering the overall top-notch quality of the writing, is that the word ‘to’ is mistakenly replaced by ‘too’ throughout almost the entire text (and I seem to remember I found that in Generation X as well). It makes it impossible to get fully immersed in the narrative, which is a shame, as the denser sections of prose - mainly those involving Brian - would have been more involving without that constant error. Too should be used for also or overly (as in, ‘he ate the bacon too’ or ‘the bacon was too salty’) but otherwise it should always be to, with one ‘o’. When you read sentence after sentence of the likes of ‘crumbling too dust before his very eyes’ it really is impossible to gloss over the mistake, and I’d suggest it would make a world of difference to the issue to be thoroughly edited for this one foible (by either William or a fresh pair of eyes) and then re-loaded to the site. I believe it would make a 7/10 issue into a 9/10 one, it’s *that* glaring.
Otherwise, great start to the series. Looking forward to more.