The DC Focus imprint got off to a rather shaky start with Hard Time.  It received mixed reviews and, despite a hell of a lot of advance publicity across the DC line, didn't sell particularly well.  Personally, I rather liked it, but it always seemed a commercially risky proposition.

Kinetic is the second book from the imprint, from Kelley Puckett and Warren Pleece.  At this point I would normally tell you what the book is about.  However, reading the book doesn't really give you much of an idea where it's heading.  Tom Morrell is a teenager suffering from all manner of medical conditions and trying to escape his overprotective mother (except if he does actually get away from her, he doesn't get his meds, so he ends up hospitalised).

And... well, that's pretty much it, really.  Actually, because I've read an interview with the writer, I know what the premise is.  Tom gets superpowers but isn't quite sure what to do with them.  There aren't any villains, there's no crime to fight... he's just a rather ill teenager with superpowers.  And that's the premise of the book, not that you'd know it from reading issue #1.

Okay, so they're going for the slow set-up.  And to be fair, the book does provide a solid introduction to Tom as a character, laying the groundwork very effectively.  Unfortunately, it kind of goes off the rails at the end, with a rather awkward scene in which Tom seems to be trying to kill himself.  Quite honestly, I'd read the book three times before I twigged that it wasn't a dream scene.  The odd colouring and the silent page of Tom walking into a lake before inexplicably reappearing on the shore certainly make it look like one.

Then again, maybe it is a dream scene.  But then it's not much of a cliffhanger if Tom gets hit by a truck in his dream.  So presumably it isn't.  Anyway, it doesn't really work.

Kinetic shares the visual style established by Hard Time - a sickly, washed-out world of minimal colouring with most of the characters in greytone.  It's a very strange approach and I'm still not convinced that it's a good idea - honestly, it has the effect of making everything look utterly miserable.  That's been okay in Hard Time, most of which has in fact been utterly miserable for the characters involved.  It doesn't fit as well in this story, particularly because there's at least one scene which ought to look much happier.  Warren Pleece's art is sufficiently understated to fit with the house style, but I'm still not quite sure what the point of this weird appearance is supposed to be.

Not a great first issue, although it does read rather better if you already know what the premise is.  The character's interesting, though, so there's some promise in there.

Rating: B-

back | continue