FUSED!Author: Niles; Steve, Lee; Paul, Escamilla; OscarGenre: Graphic Novels / Comic Books Publisher: Image Studios Released: 2002 |
A Review by Chris Madsen
08/09/2002
Artwork
The art is decent enough. People are drawn with terrific proportions—but there is hardly any detail. The backgrounds are also missing in quite a few panels; I simply deplore empty-looking comic books. With some background, a comic book gets a feeling for realism, instead of people talking and action taking place in empty space. Machines and robots do need quite a bit more detail to make them look more (for lack of a better word) robotic. One shouldn't get a feeling that these robot suits actually feel like a costume.
Story
The story is not too bad, seeing as this is only the second issue, but I sincerely hope that it doesn't follow too much of the same plots as Iron Man. It is, however, an intriguing twist. An amputee works with a doctor in order to regain his lost limbs (Lizard from Spider-man, anyone?) by donning a robotic suit. However, things go awry when the organized crime shows up to interfere with the doctor's work. We find out that the doctor has been lying to Mark (the guy wearing the suit) about a lot of things, like the suit's capabilities. I see a lot of Iron Man in this story so far; the suit talks to Mark, much like Iron Man's suit does to Tony. Only difference is that the suit that Mark's wearing seems to be more sentient. However, we see the potential for catastrophe when Mark tries to get out of the suit. Alas, the suit tells him that he and the it are...FUSED!. Interesting twist. How will Mark deal with his everyday life, being married and what not, when there's no possibility that he can have his human form back again? Time will tell...(and so will future issues).
The organized crime hitmen seem anxious to get their technology back from the doctor, who transferred his brain waves into another robot of his creation. They set out after the doctor and after Mark in the hopes of recouping their losses. We see the suit's indestructability; helicopters try to shoot down Mark in his Iron Giant look-alike suit without hardly any damage except for a shattered helmet made of glass. Of course, Mark is upset at the doctor, picking him up in his robotic guise and hurling him at one of the helicopters. A cliffhanger for the next issue.
I wonder, though, if organized crime is going to be responsible for nearly all the "accidents" and such in half of the comic books today. Surely writers can come up with other antagonists from time to time?
It will be interesting to see how the story unfolds. Will Mark regain his humanity or forever be stuck in his robot suit? Will the artwork improve? Will they still swear up a storm in the book, spouting out lines like "Two plus two equals one fucked scientist."? (I'm reasonably sure that not all Mafia hitmen speak this way.) Beyond that, what is the deal with drawn organized crime folks in black suits with black shades in black BMW's?
Colors
Most of the detail work is left to the colorist, who uses what seems to be a watercolors format to accentuate the shading and facial expressions and more. However, watercolors may make people look well-drawn, on machines and robots they just look like cardboard boxes, and grey ones at that. The suit looks like a cross between Iron Man, War Machine, The Iron Giant, and Fuji of Stormwatch. The suit itself may be a little misleading, because on the cover it is mostly a matte grey, while in most of the story it has what seems to be a red and white medical look. (This difference is resolved in an explosion;the paint job simply is burnt away to that metallic grey.)
Overall View
It is a nice departure from Iron Man in the sense that it is a man in a suit who doesn't want to be there after he finds out he is bonded to it. Tony Stark dons his armor because he likes it, but at least he can take it off. However, Tony also is a cripple; at first, he made the armor to stop the gravitation of deadly shrapnel that was heading to his heart—kind of an extensive magnetic suit, if you will. Then he discovered that he could add weapons systems, flight, and more powers to the armor. Later on in Iron Man, Tony got shot and was paralyzed from the waist down. He used the Iron Man armor to regain his mobility, much like Mark uses the suit to regain his lost appendage. Of course, we know what Iron Man can do, from lasers to pulse cannons to flight to magnetic fields, but we have yet to see much of what the suit can do for Mark other than invulnerability and strength. It will be interesting to see what other capabilities the suit has in future issues, but I like the artwork and the story in Iron Man better, so I'll pass on FUSED!.
If you're looking for a robotic comic that only stands to improve over time, however, give FUSED! a look.
© Copyright ToxicUniverse.com 08/09/2002
