Vertigo, $1.95
Short Review: Better dead than read.
Okay, first things first. Jamie Delano can't write songs, and I think someone should point such out to him. The lyrics for the top 40 hit "Better Red Than Dead" don't scan, and even if they did, wouldn't have the power to make even one teenager leave home. Have we be listening to too much 70's rock, Mr. Delano? There's nothing with that many long words (let alone ecological sentiments) making any impact on any charts anywhere these days. The followers it picks up are well-characterised and interesting, which is more than can be said of the lead roles they're following. The entire extended Baker family seems to have their personalities 80% rubbed, and replaced with either smugness or angst.
If Jamie Delano is hoping to change anything by this story line (which I have to assume, since entertainment went out the window a good while back), then he should have tried to make the pivotal difference between the world there and the world here something other than the impetus of the Animal Man, and the Red Dreaming. The message here isn't that we could do something about the environment, but that we could if there was some more magic in the world (and even then, it's clear in the story that the attempt is doomed). We get a depressing message, rather than a hopeful one.
Andrew These reviews are copyright the authors