Thursday, April 11, 2013

Action Lab month: Double Jumpers vol. 1 review

Looking at what can be considered the backbone of Action Lab's Danger Zone line and written by Dave Dwonch with art by Bill Blankenship. Action Lab released this series as single issues under it's normal lime last year. Now it's as one collected volume under the Danger Zone line.
Review by Jeremias de Leon

Story

A group of programmers are working on a game and during a bug test switched bodies with the characters in the game. That's an extremely basic description but the story is something where anymore should be experienced yourself by reading it.

The story moves at a brisk pace. Which for this kind of story is welcome. There were parts while reading where there's a kind of a red flag that goes up in your head where you think this part shouldn't go on for too long and it doesn't. Pacing is played like a game and Dwonch handles it masterfully.

There's also the conflicts. Whether it happened in the real world or in the game the tension feels almost palpable. Whether it's about fighting monsters in the game or about what the game characters are doing to the programmers lives while in their bodies in the real world. Even though the premise is sci-fi the problems are believable and you will find yourself caring about what happens.

Characters

Like any good story the characters are well written and have their own unique personalities and act as real human beings. Though I did find myself not being as attached to the characters as I thought. Not because they're not well written, far from it, but because when it comes to their background very little is given. Aside from two characters you don't really know much about their history, not that you need to know about where they went for grade school but some information on why they have the motivations they have would be appreciated. Still that aside they are still well written.

Art

The character designs are not what I'd expect for this kind of story. They are both detailed and simplified. It's a bit like a mix of Japanese manga and western cartoon style. Just looking at the characters by themselves out of context they might seem awkward but the art works very well on the pages and in this story. While looking at the pages they really do have a nice visual style built. It really does work as a comic which is what this is so it's not bad at all.

Verdict

Double Jumpers is a crazy romp through the video game industry and relationships. It is certainly a fun read with action, comedy and off the wall craziness in every page. Character development is great but there could have been more with character backstory. I give this an 9 out of 10.

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