Reviewer: Chris Delloiacono
Story Title: Childes’ Play
Written by: Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning
Art by: Kalman Andrasofszky, Eric Vedder & Rob Ross
Colored by: Jamie Noguchi
Lettered by: Nick J. Napolitano
Editor: Tom Palmer Jr.
Publisher: DC Comics
Sorry DC, it appears you missed another opportunity!
DC has had meteoric success lately with a number of new title launches. Unfortunately for every Superman/Batman, and Teen Titans there’s been a Bad Girls, Lab Rats or iCandy that have garnered zero retailer and customer interest. While John Byrne’s Lab Rats wasn’t very good, the other titles deserved a better fate.
iCandy especially was a perfect opportunity for DC to spread their wings and try to grab a small chunk of the ever expanding video game market. Children don’t read American comics anymore, but they read Anime books like Shonen Jump. Merge that with kid’s love of video games, and you get iCandy, which is something altogether unique and a potential winner. Unfortunately that’s not what happened.
Oh, those rushed finishes
Faster than two shakes of a lamb’s tail, Matt and Candy have traversed the nation reaching dad’s office in California. Fast you say? Well it seemed like things were going to take a bit longer to develop than they actually have. From what’s been said, the book was originally given a 12 issue go ahead, but as sales have been decidedly poor, the book will be canned next month. Thankfully DnA (the writing duo of Abnett and Lanning) are pulling everything together this issue, which will lead to next issue’s blowout.
I think they’re more words in this issue than were involved in the first four issues combined. Roland Childes spouts off all the secrets and need-to-know type of material to bring this book to a satisfying conclusion. I give DnA similar credit that I heaped upon Steve Vance for his excellent work of pulling the previously mentioned Bad Girls together in such short order. Too many times in the past, series have been cancelled abruptly and the entire reason for the book’s being was never resolved. Thankfully that’s not the case with iCandy.
Kalman Andrasofszky, Eric Vedder & Rob Ross pull together the art chores this month and continue to make this book look good! They’ve really gotten a very saleable product here, with artwork that compliments DnA’s scripts, and should appeal to the DBZ, Pokemon, and whatever-else-is-popular sets. Once again I must say, alas, it was a noble experiment.
DnA need to find another big time book quick!
Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning can do no wrong. They’re work on Legion has been stellar, Resurrection Man is a forgotten gem, and their current three part cross-title arc over on the Superman side of the tracks has been very enjoyable. Unfortunately, their run on Legion will soon be over, and iCandy is about to take a permanent dirt nap. DC should endeavor to have these men work on an “A†level book A.S.A.P.
