The Next #1 (of 6)

Writer: Tad Williams
Pencils: Dietrich Smith
Inker: Walden Wong
Letterer: Rob Leigh


A group of powerful beings from another dimension, on the run from the evil empire known as the Iron Ring, accidentally end up on earth after causing the death (and subsequent revival) of a teenage girl. Their arrival leaves chaos in its wake as the timestream suffers tremendous damage and Superman shows up to investigate.

When I heard about this series I wasn’t sure what to think. Where did it come from? Who are these guys working on it? What’s the point? Now that I’ve finally read the thing… I’m still a little lost.

The book is the brainchild of fantasy author Tad Williams who, in what I believe is his first comic book work, weaves a densely packed tale featuring some wild ideas, lots of science and a few bizarre and interesting new characters. At times the book is a little too wordy… alright waaay too wordy… and repetitive, which I suppose can be chalked up to inexperience but that doesn’t make it any easier to get through some of the really heavy dialogue and lengthy exposition.

Dietrich Smith’s artwork was the real treat behind this book. This guy could be one of the next big things. His character design is fun and unusual, his storytelling humorous and his visions of the other dimensional world from which the heroes arrive is appropriately bizarre. I really enjoyed his portrayal of the book’s main characters and how individual and unique they all became, in part thanks to their dialogue but also the way they were drawn, the way they “acted”. He has a good sense for action too, which will hopefully become more apparent in later issues.

The story was bizarre but fun and the art was great, but I still have trouble making a call on The Next. This first issue was mostly setup so perhaps it will take more than one issue to really get a feel for the story. It has a chance to be very good, though I’m not sure if anyone will actually read it. Occasionally a series like The Next will pop up, seemingly out of thin air, with almost no promotion and very little chance of getting on anyone’s radar. I fail to understand why anyone would publish a book featuring brand new characters and an unknown creative team without trying to get some attention for it beforehand.



Special thanks go out to Jeremy Shorr, owner of Titan Comics for allowing us to use his advance preview books for review purposes.
 

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