Kaptara #1 Review

Kaptara #1

writer- Chip Zdarsky

artist- Kagan McLeod

Shooting through space, the crew of the starship Kanga find their path blocked by an anomalous asteroid field. Rather than traversing around the barrier, they decide to plow through, which puts them on a crash course for the planet Kaptara. Kaptara is a strange lush world with dangerous beasts around every corner, and ruled by an odd queen and her son, the ridiculous Prince Dartor.

Reading Kaptara has been difficult from the moment I picked it up. If you're someone who is really into art, this book isn't even going to be a consideration for you. But if you're into story and clever dialogue, you'll put it down two or three pages in. Zdarsky tries to incorporate what looks like B-movie sci-fi fantasy, a touch of Image's signature grit and violence, and his own clever wit and humor. Unfortunately, it comes out bland and puzzling to the reader. The dialogue feels half-assed and the story is like something borrowed from a campy 1950's sci-fi film, with all the interesting aspects of the genre removed. There's an attempt at a sub-plot, or character backstory, when Zdarsky gives us flash backs of Keith interacting with his aunt about joining the mission. Again, this part of the story is so uninteresting that it's almost forgettable by the end of the issue. All of this surprises me quite a bit considering Chip Zdarsky's writing on Marvel's Howard The Duck. It's as if he wanted to write a serious space epic but add his signature one liners into the script. None of it works in this case. The seriousness in Kaptara #1 is so dull and the one liners so humorless that I'm going to have to put Kaptara under the bottom of my list.

In some circles, the name Kagan McLeod is praised for his work on Kaptara. I find the art to be

borderline hideous. The bizarre science fiction landscapes are ok, even though the coloring in these scenes scream “4-color.”  But the characters show no emotion other than physical discomfort probably due to their horribly distorted bodies. The heroic Prince in this epic comic looks like a bad rip off of He-Man, if He-Man were an eighty year old geezer with a tired wig. I have tried and tried to see what people like about this art, and what I've come up with is that they must be the kind of people who can't look away from train wrecks. I hope that McLeod and the colorist on this book can look back in the future and say, “wow, we've come a long way.” At this point, any progress would be good.

I honestly don't like talking poorly of one's work. These creators are published by a reputable company that I really do enjoy. I'll continue to read Chip Zdarsky's work on Howard the Duck and I'll look for something by McLeod that I like. And I won't stop reading books by Image just because I had a violent reaction to Kaptara, but something more must be done to wipe this reading experience from my mind. If you see it on your local shelves, keep walking and thank me later.

This is Eblison Grun from Comic Reviews Outside The Cube, shaking my head and hoping for something good to read.