It’s early days for Renee Montoya as Gotham City Police Department (GCPD) commissioner. She is in full speech-making mode, setting forth her expectations for the police department.
It’s early days for DC Comics’ GCPD: The Blue Wall, with issue #1. Writer John Ridley, perhaps best known for ‘12 Years A Slave’, is the writer.
And for a novelist/director, this comic is a good debut for a continuing title. Yet it misses being a powerful comic for its lack of effective use of the tools of the comic medium. Comics are not simply storyboards with words or novels with pictures. And that is where The Blue Wall falls short; it reads like a comic adaptation of a book. We need visual drama, contrapuntal use of dialogue against visuals, abbreviated dialogue, and all the other strong points of the medium. This one reads long, feels extended.
Artist Stefano Raffaele lends a strong hand to the easel, easing the reader through this word-led story. Colourist is Brad Anderson, letters by Artiana Maher.
It’s early days indeed, for this title. Let’s check in again next issue, to see how the new police recruits are doing, and how their stories are being written and drawn out, from their thin blue lines to full gamut drama.
DC Comics, GCPD, The Blue Wall #1. $3.99 for 23 pages of content. Teen
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Brian Isaacs - Executive Editor / Publisher