Insane Jane: The Avenging Star – Graphic Novel
BlueWater Productions
Writers: Zack Hunchar & Darren G. Davis
Penciler: GMB Chomichuk
Colorist: GMB Chomichuk
Letterer: James Reed
Graphics: Darren G. Davis
Reviewer: Derrick T. Crow
Summary: When Jane, the title character, meets the newest member to her Asylum lifestyle Grant, her world takes a drastic turn for the worse as she is lead into a world filled with crime, sin, sex and politics. All while trying to combat her own demons and super villains that reside in her head as she takes on the mental prowess of a superhero that goes by the name Insane Jane, the Avenging Star.
*SPOILERS*
Review: Insane Jane, for all intents and purposes, is filled with a solid and fantastic idea. And it’s pretty well spelled out what that is in the summary above, a tale about a girl who is losing her mind and uses her love of super heroics as an escape to this cruel world she thinks is out to get her (the super villains she sees) and that she must save herself and everyone around her (when she imagines she is a superhero). That is a good, solid, very character driven base point for an excellent story.
And, one I would have liked to have seen.
You see, the problem with this book though is that there is too much going on. The story starts of sort of slow, but then hits a break fast pace in issues 2 that never lets up once from there to let you sit down and meet the characters and care for them. Doing some research online about Insane Jane, I came across the factoid that this story is the second Insane Jane story ever told and that there is actually another one out there also published by BlueWater Productions.
BlueWater Productions
Writers: Zack Hunchar & Darren G. Davis
Penciler: GMB Chomichuk
Colorist: GMB Chomichuk
Letterer: James Reed
Graphics: Darren G. Davis
Reviewer: Derrick T. Crow
Summary: When Jane, the title character, meets the newest member to her Asylum lifestyle Grant, her world takes a drastic turn for the worse as she is lead into a world filled with crime, sin, sex and politics. All while trying to combat her own demons and super villains that reside in her head as she takes on the mental prowess of a superhero that goes by the name Insane Jane, the Avenging Star.
*SPOILERS*
Review: Insane Jane, for all intents and purposes, is filled with a solid and fantastic idea. And it’s pretty well spelled out what that is in the summary above, a tale about a girl who is losing her mind and uses her love of super heroics as an escape to this cruel world she thinks is out to get her (the super villains she sees) and that she must save herself and everyone around her (when she imagines she is a superhero). That is a good, solid, very character driven base point for an excellent story.
And, one I would have liked to have seen.
You see, the problem with this book though is that there is too much going on. The story starts of sort of slow, but then hits a break fast pace in issues 2 that never lets up once from there to let you sit down and meet the characters and care for them. Doing some research online about Insane Jane, I came across the factoid that this story is the second Insane Jane story ever told and that there is actually another one out there also published by BlueWater Productions.
And I would have never guessed that by reading this book, but it does explain why the characters are not given time to be fleshed out here. Jane has already been fleshed out; at least I am guessing she has, in her introductory book simply titled Insane Jane. That isn’t a good way to structure a story whether it is the introductory tale, the sequel or the finale. You can’t assume that the reader has already read the first story or they’re just going to be lost if they haven’t. Especially towards the end in the final act when there is a reference to what I am guessing is the previous book.
Upon reading I noticed there was plenty of room given to each page where the writers could have taken the time out and let us breathe and get to know the characters and even what the story was going to be like, but I was sad to see those opportunities wasted on big action panels with little-to-no-dialogue or a single panel on a page that is filled with gibberish speech bubbles that make absolutely no sense to the story, the character, or the reader and I wonder why these moments were even there than to drill into our heads that Jane is insane. Which, by the way, the writers drilled into our head this fact very often; I get it. She’s crazy.
Now, that’s not to say this book was all bad. I’ll stop for a moment before getting back into it and highlight some of the things I did like about this story. Jane herself, despite being painted in the light that she is, makes a good protagonist. She is curious, fun, and just wants to see the world but knows she has an illness that keeps her from seeing it the way she wants. She does like seeing herself in a heroic role that much is for sure. She very much wants to be a hero to the people and to herself and she feels trapped within the Mental Hospital so of course she is going to take any chance she can to get out of it, even if she hurts others in the process.
Upon reading I noticed there was plenty of room given to each page where the writers could have taken the time out and let us breathe and get to know the characters and even what the story was going to be like, but I was sad to see those opportunities wasted on big action panels with little-to-no-dialogue or a single panel on a page that is filled with gibberish speech bubbles that make absolutely no sense to the story, the character, or the reader and I wonder why these moments were even there than to drill into our heads that Jane is insane. Which, by the way, the writers drilled into our head this fact very often; I get it. She’s crazy.
Now, that’s not to say this book was all bad. I’ll stop for a moment before getting back into it and highlight some of the things I did like about this story. Jane herself, despite being painted in the light that she is, makes a good protagonist. She is curious, fun, and just wants to see the world but knows she has an illness that keeps her from seeing it the way she wants. She does like seeing herself in a heroic role that much is for sure. She very much wants to be a hero to the people and to herself and she feels trapped within the Mental Hospital so of course she is going to take any chance she can to get out of it, even if she hurts others in the process.
Which you can’t completely blame her for the deaths she causes in this book, well you could, but she is mentally unstable and when someone is being mean to her she sees them as a villain that should be vanquished from the world; It’s a more innocent yet deranged take than how her opposite Grant sees things.
Grant, who ends up being our villain, sees the world a lot differently. And I would have loved to see him fleshed out more but you really only get tidbits at the end by third-party throw away characters as to what his back story is like. But for the sake of this review, let’s not dwell on that. Grant is a terrorist who sees things exactly the opposite of what Jane sees things. Though he starts out just as fun loving, by issue 3 you start to see things are not quite right and he might even be using her.
He comes to the hospital and we aren’t told what his illness is, only that Jane falls for him instantly. The two end up talking and he asks her to team up with him to break out. As time passes they plot a plan off screen, and that plan really ends up being killing the nurse and jumping off a bridge into a river. They hitch a ride to Las Vegas where Grant, after “running some errands” decides to blow up the Eden hotel they are staying at, and he has been using Jane this whole time so that he could escape the hospital and make a statement on the Economy and politics in today’s world.
That’s where things got the iffiest for me. Grant, our villain and crazy terrorist, apparently has a stance on the economy and the way our government currently runs the country. As he and Jane battle on the streets of Vegas he discusses with her: gun control, foreign policies, Wikileaks and how he would rather we kept segregation and non-equal rights because as he puts it our government did not decide those things for us. I’m guessing he was also a Klan member too, but that isn’t ever mentioned here.
Grant, who ends up being our villain, sees the world a lot differently. And I would have loved to see him fleshed out more but you really only get tidbits at the end by third-party throw away characters as to what his back story is like. But for the sake of this review, let’s not dwell on that. Grant is a terrorist who sees things exactly the opposite of what Jane sees things. Though he starts out just as fun loving, by issue 3 you start to see things are not quite right and he might even be using her.
He comes to the hospital and we aren’t told what his illness is, only that Jane falls for him instantly. The two end up talking and he asks her to team up with him to break out. As time passes they plot a plan off screen, and that plan really ends up being killing the nurse and jumping off a bridge into a river. They hitch a ride to Las Vegas where Grant, after “running some errands” decides to blow up the Eden hotel they are staying at, and he has been using Jane this whole time so that he could escape the hospital and make a statement on the Economy and politics in today’s world.
That’s where things got the iffiest for me. Grant, our villain and crazy terrorist, apparently has a stance on the economy and the way our government currently runs the country. As he and Jane battle on the streets of Vegas he discusses with her: gun control, foreign policies, Wikileaks and how he would rather we kept segregation and non-equal rights because as he puts it our government did not decide those things for us. I’m guessing he was also a Klan member too, but that isn’t ever mentioned here.
Our two protagonists/antagonists also compare themselves to Adam and Eve, where Grant tries to convince Jane that she is Eve and has eaten the forbidden fruit; that is also why he is doing this. Because she allowed it. I actually like this to a certain degree, all politics aside I like when the villain tries to convince our hero that what they did caused the terrible events taking place. Whether we as readers know it or not, it does give the hero another moral dilemma to deal with when trying to stop something awful from taking place. But here… well it’s iffy, as this juxtaposition of characters to Genesis in the Bible isn’t even hinted on once until the last part off issue 3 and then is quickly swept aside by the middle of issue 4 for all the politics to come in to play.
But Jane wins, as the hero always should, and is taken back to the hospital where it is then implied that the whole story took place in her head and she is in absolute solitary confinement, reaching a serious state of psychosis. What a dark ending. We’re also left with more of that gibberish speaking that makes absolute no sense but I tried to ignore it.
The writers, Zack Hunchar & Darren G. Davis, I have never read anything from them before. Granted I have not read much BlueWater comics in my life, but they have solid ideas and if they tried a little harder they could really drive them home. Though this is only one story, and their other stuff may be fantastically great if they have done any other stuff (besides the aforementioned first Insane Jane book).
Their script seems to be too drawn out or hokey depending on how you want to look at it as the dialogue at times can be downright grueling but then actually kinda neat. The heroes and villains here are very over the top which makes sense in a world set in the head of a crazy lady so there I say they were really smart but I still think they could have done a better job of fleshing out all the players and slowing the story down a bit so by the time Grant is defeated at the end or when I find out the world takes place in the head of the main character completely, I actually care about it.
But Jane wins, as the hero always should, and is taken back to the hospital where it is then implied that the whole story took place in her head and she is in absolute solitary confinement, reaching a serious state of psychosis. What a dark ending. We’re also left with more of that gibberish speaking that makes absolute no sense but I tried to ignore it.
The writers, Zack Hunchar & Darren G. Davis, I have never read anything from them before. Granted I have not read much BlueWater comics in my life, but they have solid ideas and if they tried a little harder they could really drive them home. Though this is only one story, and their other stuff may be fantastically great if they have done any other stuff (besides the aforementioned first Insane Jane book).
Their script seems to be too drawn out or hokey depending on how you want to look at it as the dialogue at times can be downright grueling but then actually kinda neat. The heroes and villains here are very over the top which makes sense in a world set in the head of a crazy lady so there I say they were really smart but I still think they could have done a better job of fleshing out all the players and slowing the story down a bit so by the time Grant is defeated at the end or when I find out the world takes place in the head of the main character completely, I actually care about it.
Some food for thought good sirs.
Though I could forgive the writing, the art… well, the art is a completely different matter. Simply put, I do not like it. The art is done by GMB Chomichuk, I have no idea who that is, and the art is really all over the place with no set style, either the panels are too busy or too dark, the characters are quite literally copy’n paste or stars are put in the most awkward places because I guess the artists couldn’t draw that. Or to continually drill into our heads this story is “star themed” though stars really don’t play a factor into this story than when they show up in a panel where something else should have been.
That’s all I will really say on the art, other than I’m glad they made Jane look somewhat sexy in her bikini in issue 3. That was candy for the eye.
I’m going to stop there, and as this is my first review I will give Insane Jane: Avenging Star,
2 Avenging Stars out of 5.
Though I could forgive the writing, the art… well, the art is a completely different matter. Simply put, I do not like it. The art is done by GMB Chomichuk, I have no idea who that is, and the art is really all over the place with no set style, either the panels are too busy or too dark, the characters are quite literally copy’n paste or stars are put in the most awkward places because I guess the artists couldn’t draw that. Or to continually drill into our heads this story is “star themed” though stars really don’t play a factor into this story than when they show up in a panel where something else should have been.
That’s all I will really say on the art, other than I’m glad they made Jane look somewhat sexy in her bikini in issue 3. That was candy for the eye.
I’m going to stop there, and as this is my first review I will give Insane Jane: Avenging Star,
2 Avenging Stars out of 5.