Review: Idolized #3 By David Schwartz and Pasquale Qualano (Aspen)

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Review: Idolized #3

Published by Aspen

Written by David Schwartz

Art by Pasquale Qualano

Very, Very Brief Recap of What’s Happened Thus Far

Leslie is a super-powered teen with electricity-based powers and is eventually given the code-name Joule.  She auditions for the t.v. show, Superhero Idol, in order to gain a spot on the Powered Protectors.  She uses a story about seeking redemption to get onto the show, but is really seeking revenge upon the one that caused the death of her family, Stasis.  The group is whittled down to ten contestants and she has made it this far only to be told that she has been disqualified from the show.

The Plot

The story explains right away why Leslie/Joule has been disqualified from the show.  Photos have surfaced showing her engaging in illegal activities, which shows the public that she cannot be an “idol.”  She argues that it can be sold as part of her image that anyone can recover from hitting rock bottom and is then reinstated.  The contestants all receive new costumes, hairdos, and their official superhero code-names.  Joule uses her intellect in some challenges and brute strength in others in order to showcase all of her abilities.  She keeps it in mind that the voting public determines who makes it through each round.  One competition was very controversial as the heroes were placed in the situation to try and resolve 9-11.  One of the contestants, The Present (temporal powers), truly doesn’t like her and lets her thoughts about her be known.  Another contestant, Carter (Mindfull) shows a romantic interest in her, but she rebuffs his attempt.  However, she has some sort of romantic entanglement with another contestant, Regenerate, but it isn’t specified to what extent.  Through various ways, contestants are whittled down to just three, Joule, the Present, and Trooper (who doesn’t have any powers).  Surprisingly, The Present provides Joule with some words of encouragement before the last competition.  The last competition is a final battle amongst the final three with no votes being taken as the winner is determined by this fight.  Joule takes to the air only to find that another hero named Drain is in there with them to ensure that no powers are used during the fight.

The Breakdown

There are some aspects of the art that I liked better this issue than the previous ones.  This issue has a different artist and I enjoy the angles on some of the panels as well as layouts in general.  There is a lot that happens in this issue and the art has to work in order to push the story forward at such a fast pace.  I also liked the colouring as some of the pages really popped and the bright look to it really fits the book.  There are a lot of characters and Schwartz does a decent job of giving them personalities in the limited space of just a few issues.  I’m only familiar with his work on Meltdown (Image), which was released a few years back (which was a good book that made me want to check this one out and its being released digitally by Aspen now).  Leslie is a gritty, angry character and she’s not unlikeable or too over the top.  The false and superficial nature of reality shows is evident in this book with the producers and judges behind the scenes.  Also, there is a correlation to real life as shows often sacrifice morals and ethics by stirring up controversy in order to gain viewers.  This issue ends on another cliffhanger, which does help with anticipating the next issue.  The cliffhangers are designed differently from issue to issue so it doesn’t seem repetitive.  I am anticipating how the next issue is going to play out.  Overall I enjoyed it.

BUT…

The story really did move at a brisk pace.  If the story is moving in a completely different direction then it could be a good thing, but I didn’t expect to see so many eliminations in one issue.  I would’ve liked to have seen the relationships built up between the characters a bit more.  However, in the book’s defense, it was stated that outside of the cameras the contestants kept mostly to themselves.  I would’ve liked to learn more about the characters though, but they were shuffled off at such a fast rate.  I thought there were some more areas that could’ve been explored if this issue had played out differently.  With such a competition, emotions, controversies, and relationships (both good and bad) could have been told with more detail.  This actually left me wondering whether or not this was an ongoing or if there was an ending coming up somewhat soon.  The characters did have personalities, but I do feel that more time could’ve been allocated to fleshing them out a bit more (perhaps an extra issue).  I didn’t really care when they got eliminated because I wasn’t attached to them yet.  I said Schwartz did a decent job of giving them personalities, which gave me an idea of who they were.  However, it wasn’t a great job of making the contestants more than one-dimensional.  One part of the art that bothered me was when they received their makeovers.  Joule’s hair does seem to be different for a panel, maybe two, but it looks the same as it did before throughout the rest of the book.

Buy It, Borrow It, Shelf Read It, or Ignore It?

Buy It.  One of the issues that I’ve had with a couple of titles from Aspen that I’ve tried out before was books coming out on schedule.  This title has been regular and therefore, it keeps its momentum.  My concern with the pacing could be off-base.  This book could just be straying from what seemed like the formula of the book early on in order to tell a much larger story.  So I’m reserving my judgment on the pacing for the time being until I read more.  My gripes about the other contestants become secondary because of how Joule is handled.  Joule has been well-written and I like how subtle she her character is.  Also, there isn’t anything saying that the other contestants won’t return at some point.  This is just another chapter of a larger story.  It is Aspen’s first foray into the superhero genre and overall, it’s been enjoyable thus far.

I have been both an avid and casual comic reader over the years (depending on the quality of books). I have been reading Comics Nexus even prior to it becoming Comics Nexus and am glad to be a columnist. In addition, feel free to leave comments whether you agree or disagree because it always leads to discussions.