Open Mike Night - Shade the Changing Girl #1

Shade the Changing Girl #1

Written by: Cecil Cestellucci
Art by: Marley Zarcone
Colored by: Kelly Fitzpatrick
Lettered by: Saida Temoforte

Published by: DC/Young Animal
Cover Price:  $3.99

Mike Maillaro: I always think it’s a tricky balance to do “different” without going too weird.  I actually really liked Young Animal’s debut with Doom Patrol, but there were plenty of times it may has slipped into weird for the sake of weird.  Despite that, I was still really looking forward to checking out their other series, including Shade the Changing Girl.  I am not even sure I ever read any Shade the Changing Man comics.  I know him from appearances in Suicide Squad and Justice League Dark, but not much else about him.

Shade starts with a young woman named Meghan waking up out of a coma...much to her parents surprise, because they had just signed paperwork saying to pull her from life support.  But something seems very unusual about this girl.  She seems to be seeing all kinds of crazy colors, and talking a but like Delirium from Sandman.  It turns out her body is being inhabited by an alien creature called Loma who worships Rac Shade (the original Shade the Changing Man).

To be honest, this one was a little hard to follow.  I had to read it three times, and I’m still not sure I got all of it.  The story is told in a very disjointed fashion, and so many of the human characters look alike I had a hard time telling exactly who was who.  Meghan seemed to be a real jerk that people just followed because that is what you do in fictional high school.  Loma seemed to be an outcast to her people too, stealing Rac’s Madness vest to escape to Earth.  There is just a lot to here to try and digest.

Weaver: Shade the Changing Man was a series I always meant to read but didn’t.  From what I know of it (mostly from vintage ads for it), this doesn’t seem too different from the original Shade.  It was pretty psychadelic.

Every character looking the same was a real problem for me.  None of them got names except for Meghan and someone called “Teacup” that may have never even actually been on panel but may have, we don’t know since she’s only referred to by name when she’s not around, then later there’s other people that weren’t there at that time, and we know Teacup used to be in that crowd, but...gah, I give up.

Maillaro: Yeah, it’s never good when the alien stuff made far more sense than the Earth stuff.  It was a bit disconcerting when Meghan’s parents actually seemed kind of bummed out that she survived.  We do get the sense that Meghan was a bit of a horrible person, but still not quite what you expect from parents.

My favorite part of this comic may have been the back up story about an alien who ends up unwittingly help some kind of hero or bounty hunter track down his prey...and it’s not even remotely clear how connected it was to the rest of the comic.  

Weaver: In her parents’ defense, I have read some studies that indicate parents and loved ones have a certain threshold with comatose people where they come to terms with what’s happening and have made the necessary mental arrangements to cope with it...then if the person comes back, they’re not prepared to reopen that box, since it was so hard to shut it.  Same thing with kidnapping victims and such.  It was obvious that it was a hard decision to pull the plug on her, especially given how many past due medical bills they had, and after deciding, it’s hard to go back.

Maillaro: Good point.  

For the most part, I do think there is something here, but I am just not quite sure there was enough to grab me as a reader.  I like the mean girl vibe, and I think Loma has the potential to be a really unique character.  But, as I’ve said many times, I read a lot of comics, and in the big stack of new series I read this week, Shade was just about the low man on the totem pole.  

Weaver: I do want to say I agree with the back-up being a better story than the main story...at least for now, when all we have to work with is what’s in this issue.  Possibly further developments could make the main story more intriguing.  It’s easy to do a few pages of a joke sketch, compared to a full continuing comic story.  I think the main story needed that break at the end, though.

It feels to me like a pretty typical Vertigo series, heavy on the symbolism and psychedelia to start with, potentially giving a deeper story later.  But I, also, didn’t particularly see a reason to come back for round two of this.

I’m giving it a 3 for story because while it was disjointed, you did sense there was a story lingering in there below the surface.  The writer definitely has plans in mind.  For art, I’m giving it a 1.5.  Yes, yes, the psychedelia is great, but let’s take more care about making people distinct from each other, and the backgrounds were mostly generic to the point of lazy if they weren’t psychedelic.

Maillaro: We’re spoiled by Steranko, Mike Allred, and Sandman. I like psychedelic, but it needs to have some basis to hang it’s hat on, and I’m just not sure there was enough here.  And like you said, way too many characters looking the same.  I will go a 2 for the art and a 2.5 for the story.  Not a strong enough first issue to really grab me as a reader. Maybe if I have more of a connection to Shade the Changing Man I’d feel differently...

Final Scores

Summary: While I really enjoyed Doom Patrol, Young Animal's second book just didn't win me over.  This isn't the worst comic I have ever read, but it felt very middle of the road.  In a crowded marketplace, there wasn't enough here to keep me engaged as a customer.

Maillaro: So, for this week, got two more new series launching.  Great Lake Avengers, which has always been a favorite for me, and Millar/Capullo’s Rebirth. To be honest, Rebirth doesn’t quite feel like my speed (it’s basically a quest story that takes place in an afterlife where we are at perpetual war), but Millar has had several great new mini’s in a row (MPH, Empress, Starlight, Huck, Chrononauts), so I will likely be picking it up anyway.  And I love Capullo’s art.

Weaver: I tend not to be a big fan of Millar, so I think I will side with GLA.

Maillaro: I kind of figured that would be the answer.  Works for me!