Flying Saucers vs. The Earth #1
Bluewater Comics
Writer: Ryan Burton
Artwork: Alan Brooks
Graphics & Editing: Darren G. Davis
Reviewer: Jesse Brown
Put your space helmet on and set your phasers to stun, because it’s time for my review of Flying Saucers vs. The Earth.#1.
Thousands of years ago…no scratch that, A long time ago in a galaxy far far away..scratch that too. Before the dawn of time…uhm nevermind the intro.
Summary: Some where, in space, preparations are being made for a wide scale global invasion of the planet..EARTH! (Gasp) A guy named Ashur suits up and climbs on board what appears to be some kind of hover bike. He is brought up to speed on his mission and the suits capabilities. I must point out how the instructor tells Ahsur that the enemy will not be able to probe him. Well that’s good to know.
Somewhere else the Warlord is declaring his purpose and war sentiments towards humans amidst an entire fleet of flying saucers. (Nice Page)
Ashur sets out on his adventure and almost immediately gets attacked by a giant monsterish weird looking space alien creature thing. Which at sometimes appears like a giant floating face and others, resembles something you might see on the video game “Doom”. Whatever it is, it changes color and shape and has a whole lot of long, big sharp teeth, and a neon green glow. (Is that supposed to be a brain? Who can tell?) Ashur dodges it and shoots his “plasma stream” at them (apparently there is more than 1), at which point someone else comes flying out of nowhere. I swear I cannot tell just what the heck is going on. Then, the monsters start screaming and then explode.
Supposedly there is a scene change because the next panel is a large face of a woman saying I’ll heal you. Did I miss something? No, just a few inches of black space.
Review: Okay stop right there, this is just plain weird. Even for Sci-Fi. I can’t follow the story the way it’s being presented. The art work is an explosion of neon colors and absurd lighting effects. It’s like someone just threw every single Photoshop filter onto it and jacked up the vibrance to max. Looking at it feels like I’m on acid or having a bad trip.
One thing is for sure, this comic is definitely unique and original. I don’t know if I could call it ground breaking as much as it is really weird and disorienting.
The story is pretty much all subtext. You have to read behind the lines and take a lot of guesses at the situation to understand the story even a little bit, but honestly I don’t think there is much going on.
From as best as I can gather, based on the bizarre dialog, a couple of recruits from some space academy on another planet, are being sent to Earth as scout reporters for the invasion. At the end we can see the three of them inside a flying spaceship. Everything leading up to that seems like filler. There is some strange premonition about a scientist from Earth being their weakness, however everything is written extremely vague or too specific too understand at all.
I’m really lost on this one. From the cool cover I expected to see an epic apocalyptical destruction of Earth by massive over powered alien spaceships, but what I got was some kind of student art project that looks like an early 90s Full Motion Video / Laserdisc game.
If the art direction had been focused on more or even cleaned up some this could be a decent comic. Instead it is very difficult to visually interpret, and quite unappealing.
There was definitely potential for high stakes drama and intense action based on the premise, so probably the story will pick up.
These days it’s extremely hard to be original, with every one comparing you to Star Wars or Battle Star Galactica, Sci-Fi can be a really hard fan base to capture. This comic strived to be highly imaginative and 100% original, which is a daring move and I give it some credit.
Bluewater Comics
Writer: Ryan Burton
Artwork: Alan Brooks
Graphics & Editing: Darren G. Davis
Reviewer: Jesse Brown
Put your space helmet on and set your phasers to stun, because it’s time for my review of Flying Saucers vs. The Earth.#1.
Thousands of years ago…no scratch that, A long time ago in a galaxy far far away..scratch that too. Before the dawn of time…uhm nevermind the intro.
Summary: Some where, in space, preparations are being made for a wide scale global invasion of the planet..EARTH! (Gasp) A guy named Ashur suits up and climbs on board what appears to be some kind of hover bike. He is brought up to speed on his mission and the suits capabilities. I must point out how the instructor tells Ahsur that the enemy will not be able to probe him. Well that’s good to know.
Somewhere else the Warlord is declaring his purpose and war sentiments towards humans amidst an entire fleet of flying saucers. (Nice Page)
Ashur sets out on his adventure and almost immediately gets attacked by a giant monsterish weird looking space alien creature thing. Which at sometimes appears like a giant floating face and others, resembles something you might see on the video game “Doom”. Whatever it is, it changes color and shape and has a whole lot of long, big sharp teeth, and a neon green glow. (Is that supposed to be a brain? Who can tell?) Ashur dodges it and shoots his “plasma stream” at them (apparently there is more than 1), at which point someone else comes flying out of nowhere. I swear I cannot tell just what the heck is going on. Then, the monsters start screaming and then explode.
Supposedly there is a scene change because the next panel is a large face of a woman saying I’ll heal you. Did I miss something? No, just a few inches of black space.
Review: Okay stop right there, this is just plain weird. Even for Sci-Fi. I can’t follow the story the way it’s being presented. The art work is an explosion of neon colors and absurd lighting effects. It’s like someone just threw every single Photoshop filter onto it and jacked up the vibrance to max. Looking at it feels like I’m on acid or having a bad trip.
One thing is for sure, this comic is definitely unique and original. I don’t know if I could call it ground breaking as much as it is really weird and disorienting.
The story is pretty much all subtext. You have to read behind the lines and take a lot of guesses at the situation to understand the story even a little bit, but honestly I don’t think there is much going on.
From as best as I can gather, based on the bizarre dialog, a couple of recruits from some space academy on another planet, are being sent to Earth as scout reporters for the invasion. At the end we can see the three of them inside a flying spaceship. Everything leading up to that seems like filler. There is some strange premonition about a scientist from Earth being their weakness, however everything is written extremely vague or too specific too understand at all.
I’m really lost on this one. From the cool cover I expected to see an epic apocalyptical destruction of Earth by massive over powered alien spaceships, but what I got was some kind of student art project that looks like an early 90s Full Motion Video / Laserdisc game.
If the art direction had been focused on more or even cleaned up some this could be a decent comic. Instead it is very difficult to visually interpret, and quite unappealing.
There was definitely potential for high stakes drama and intense action based on the premise, so probably the story will pick up.
These days it’s extremely hard to be original, with every one comparing you to Star Wars or Battle Star Galactica, Sci-Fi can be a really hard fan base to capture. This comic strived to be highly imaginative and 100% original, which is a daring move and I give it some credit.