Earlier this year, BOOM! Studios unveiled their new imprint, BOOM! Box, which allows creators to create unique and outrageous content simply for the love of comics and storytelling. Writer Ryan North, artists Shelli Paroline & Braden Lamb along with letterer Steve Wands kick off the fun with The Midas Flesh #1. What does this sci-fi adventure have to offer readers?
In this first issue, Ryan North presents two parts of a story. The first introduces us to a small crew of space-travelers: Joey, Fatima and Cooper. Cooper is the dinosaur on the cover. He’s a Utahraptor to be specific. I had to look that up. In the second, we see how the roots of this tale rest in ancient Greece. King Midas, Silenus and Dionysus are all true to their roots. Even with my personal tolerance for Greek mythology being rather low, I was pleased with how North used these elements. I didn’t feel overwhelmed with ancient references.
North deserves a lot of credit for pacing in The Midas Flesh. We get a solid idea of the character’s personalities and the relationships between them. The two halves of this story are given roughly the same amount of attention, which is more than enough to pull you in. Just as it’s all about to come together, the issue ends.
Shelli Paroline and Braden Lamb give the book an animated and expressive look. Even with North’s narrative, Paroline and Lamb’s visual storytelling shouldn’t go unnoticed. Just from a design standpoint, a few elements standout: the crew’s spaceship, the Prospect, and Cooper, both in his spacesuit and glasses and tie.
The Midas Flesh fuses together the mythology of ancient Greece, futuristic space travel and a techie dinosaur. This is exactly what BOOM! Box is all about. There’s a sense of wonder here that perfectly captures what the sci-fi genre is about. Discovering how the various elements tie together will bring you back for issue #2. Judging from this first issue, we're going to hear a lot about The Midas Flesh and BOOM! Box come 2014.
Verdict: 4/5
This copy of The Midas Flesh #1 was provided by BOOM! Studios.
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