Warehouse 13 #1

People probably think the only books to come out right now are DC's New 52.  It is genius in a marketing sense to have the dominating releases of an entire month.  it has opened up a few possibilities for me.  I have paid for the month in advance and I can try out a few books because I have the cash to check them out.  One of those books is Warehouse 13.

I almost missed the fact that this book was coming out.  I think I saw it online somewhere in a mention of new releases that people do.  I asked for it to be placed on the old pull list and had it there when I had the big stack of DCnU.  I love the show.  I have to watch it on Hulu.com because we do not have cable or satellite.  Getting a comic was just a nice surprise.

Sadly, this is not a comic with any wow factor.  If you want a story like the show, then you will be happy.  There is a good use of the medium by having and artifact that can earthquake an entire city out of existence.  It is an international tale that is worthy of the original format.  Plus Pete talks Myka into a teeny tiny Carnivale costume.  To be fair, he runs around with his shirt off and Myka looks like Myka still, no breast enlargement for the sake of sales.  Really the scenes with her in them dressed like this are muted.  She was being encouraged to sidle up to the suspect and try to get his attention with her feminine wiles.  Could have been played for some humor, but that missed that chance.

I am not giving up, but with the cost of comicbooks, they had better get a bit better than just good real fast.  It is a good story and a understated first issue.

BDS

The Colorado Kid & Haven

            I have been watching the TV Show Haven on my Hulu account.  Haven is one of the SyFy channel’s crop of shows that started this past summer.  It revolves around a seaside community in New England that is a place of quiet living and strange occurrences.  It is not the “troubles” or awesome Agent Audrey Parker that I write about this post, but the small book by Stephen King that inspired the show.  The book is a short and very focused on the characters that reveal the story that is not a story.

The Colorado Kid is not what I expected.  I figured maybe the characters in the show would appear in the younger days of their life and be involved in a mystery that has been mentioned as a way to intrigue Audrey’s past to the viewer.  Instead it is a stand alone and apart tale of a young girl who is learning the journalism ropes from a couple of fellas that clearly are the inspiration for the show Haven’s resident small town paper men.  It is they that decide to explain to Stephanie about why they did not share the tale of The Colorado Kid with a big time reporter from The Boston Globe.

            What is revealed is a story of a dead man that has no resolution.  There are facts and questions that come from his being found, yet it is not a story.  The facts surrounding the events could be told in any fashion.  For as the men tell us there is no beginning, middle, and end like we would like.  Just questions and some speculation.  I had a college English professor that I figure would have hated this book.  He was a nasty sort that always wanted the tidy wrapped up packages for his literature.  The Colorado Kid provides us with no tidy package and teaches us that some tales do not deserve to be shared so a forced ending can be written.

Agent Audrey Parker (Emily Rose)

            The TV Show Haven can be seen clearly in the tale.  It is the tiny island that we see here.  It is filled with the easy going folk that are mention.  Even the way Stephanie describes how she is slowly accepted as a member of the community fits with how we watch Audrey slowly become a trusted member of the town of Haven.  Sometimes the seed of an idea can bear fruit.  Stephen King discusses the seed that created The Colorado Kid and from that fruit a seed was taken to grow an intriguing TV Show.  Many compared the show to Warehouse 13, which I believe is wrong.  If anything, The Gates is closer.  I feel that Haven is named that for a reason.  Like that ABC show with a gated community for “monsters” Haven seems to be a place where people cursed or afflicted with “troubles” find a life.

            It will be intriguing to see how the latest revealed about Audrey Parker fits into the Show's continuing mythology.

BDS