Forever War #1 –
Titan Comics
Written by Joe Haldeman
Art by Marvano
Letters by Cat Connery
Translated by Gay Haldeman
When is the last time you read a great novel? To me there is a distinct difference between a book and a novel, even though some may view them as the same entity. More often than not, we get to see these stories brought to life and we get to see it outside of our own imagination. Forever War started as an award winning novel, now Titan Comics is bringing it back and giving it new life. Now let’s see if it was a life worth resurrecting.
If you’re not familiar with the story, life on Earth has expanded into space but it hasn’t gone so well. Earth vessels are under attack by extra terrestrial ships, and the result was the formation of the United Nations Exploratory Force. This elite task force is meant to fight whatever force is attacking humans. What we get to see in this first issue is, mostly, the extreme training that the team is going through. On one hand, you get why it is so difficult. As you keep reading though, you can’t help but wonder if it’s really worth it. You’re also given very little about the threat that they are facing, but that may be because it appears that little is known by anyone about said threat. The story appears to be narrated by one of the members of this force, William Mandella. Problem is, there is really no set main character that can be defined in this story right now. We do get a focused story on someone, but it doesn’t last long. It’s not until the end of the issue that the team actually gets set off on their first mission.
As I read this book, very early on I started to wonder if this was something that should have been adapted to a comic. It’s easy to see how this could work as a novel, but to me the first issue dragged on quite a bit. Yes we do get to see a bit of a spotlight on Mandella, but not enough to really make you feel like he is the main protagonist of the story. You also don’t really get any attachment to any of the surrounding characters. So when somebody dies, there is no emotional connection, other than the fact that they’re all human beings. You do get to see the struggles of what they’re going though, and maybe even the absurdity of it all. Problem is, what I didn’t get, was invested. It was like if they forced you to watch an entire NFL training camp from start to finish, then they drive you to the first real game and block it from your field of vision before it starts. The art was a bit below average for me too, and didn’t really seem to capture the vast space backdrop that I’d hoped it would. First issues have to grab you, especially if you’re not familiar with the original novel. Fans of the original text may press on to get the visual of a story they loved. For someone like me, who never read the original, there just isn’t enough here to make me want to keep going.
RATING: DROP / SKIP