Disappointing
I received "Monster Attack Network" (MAN) as a gift. I don't regularly read comic books, but I have enjoyed a number of graphic novels over the years. Since this was the first work by these authors I went in with an open, cautious mind. I came out seriously disappointed.
The plot initially sounds promising: what if people decided to colonize a "monster island" similar to the one seen in the famous Toho monster movies? What kind of logistics would be involved? Who would clean up the mess? MAN attempts to tell the tale of the people behind the scenes on such an island, and we quickly learn that "concept" and "execution" are two critically different things.
A plot like this obviously requires the reader to suspend disbelief, hopefully in exchange for an interesting alternate universe. You don't find that here. Instead you find an elementary-school-level plot that feels absurd even within its own subjective universe. There are often situations where the rules of the MAN realm don't mesh with what happened earlier --the authors appear to be trying to create a frantic environment, but because they don't keep things grounded it's hard to stay still long enough to gain perspective on where the plot is going. This results in many disappointing moments, the most glaring of which are the actual monsters encounters. Seemingly the raison d'être for MAN, every monster appearance is uniformly short and confusing. The rarely get significant viewing time and none are dispatched in any interesting fashion --a serious shortcoming when your book is titled "Monster Attack Network".
Unsurprisingly, the dialog consists of mindless, cliché tripe that's occasionally punctuated by moments of wit and originality. If this story had lots of action and little dialog, then it wouldn't be a problem --in fact it would seem a story about a monster island and the team that works in the wake of gargantuan creatures would be non-stop action. At least it would in concept, in execution --because of the aforementioned dearth of monster activity and action-- you find yourself surrounded by lame dialog far more often than necessary.
The art was also below average. The look was inconsistent, characters would sometimes look significantly different from one panel to the next (without any stylistic intentions to do so), many scenes (particularly action scenes) felt only partly drawn and incomplete --resulting in a lot more confusion than necessary.
While contemporary pop culture references can add to a story, all the instances in MAN feel forced an awkward --some, like "Grey's Anatomy", the Prius, and the PS3, almost like bad product placement. The artist often mixed in some real photos for background information, including Caeser's Palace and the Bellagio (would that be considered Fair Use? But I digress). There is a direct reference to the Weyland-Yutani Corporation from the Aliens-franchise that made me long for the graphic novels in that series.
Capping the whole shebang is a completely disappointing ending. The sort of ending where, if someone clapped, you'd want to shake them and demand to know why they ever thought it was a good ending. In the end you feel the writers tried to do the equivalent of fitting 500 pages of plot in 50, and dramatic impact is lost.
When it comes down to it, the authors seemed to want to write a fluffy summer blockbuster; something frivolous like "Godzilla" (1998) or "Transformers". Indeed, its like someone took Michael Bay's style of movie-making and tried to turn it into a graphic novel. The key word is "tried". With respect to Mr. Bay, this effort fell short of even that low level.
I realize this review is very negative, so I'd like to bring out a few things that might be a silver lining: The story certainly has potential to be re-tuned into something good, there's definitely a kernel of something very good inside --and MAN might inspire someone to write something better. It's also nice to see a tough-guy gay character, one that avoids cliché and isn't insulted by the other characters.
Ultimately, I cannot recommend this graphic novel, and I regret spending time with it.
WHO CLEANS UP AFTER GIANT MONSTER ATTACKS?
Ever wonder who gets to clean up all the damage crated by the giant monsters in those Japanese monster films? Who rebuilds the cities and infrastructure? Well, it's the Monster Attack Network. This new graphic novel from AiT Planet Lar shows just how the men and women of the Monster Attack Network deal with giant monster attacks. The setting is the South Pacific island of Lapuatu. Nate Klinger is the group's leader and we first see Nate coming to the aid of residents who are trapped in their building during one of those attacks. All buildings are built to have special escape chutes to be used when some great beast rises out of the pacific to attack the island. For the residents, it's as if they live in tornado alley; giant monster attacks are just something they live with.
The Team gets a new employee, Lana Barnes, who Nate suspects has some secrets in her past that she is trying to hide. Funny thing is, ever since Lana, and an unscrupulous land developer have show up on the island, the monster attacks have increased in their frequency as well as their intensity. The developer just happens to have freighters of construction supplies and machinery sitting in the nearby harbor. Nate smells something bad and it's not the stench of rotting monster bodies.
For fans of Godzilla films and the like, Monster Attack Network is a blast. Loaded with action and sarcastic humor, this is a wildly entertaining book. The dialog is razor sharp and the black and white art by Sorat is lush and expressive. Giant monsters have not been this fun in a long time!
REVIEWED BY TIM JANSON
(2 reviews)
