Bionic Man #1-2
I’m a gigantic fan of Kevin Smith. Movies such as Mallrats, Dogma, and Chasing Amy were key elements in the development of my film acumen and writing style and his dedication to the podcasting format is one of the main reasons I got into web radio in the first place. And during the days of my dark comic book drought it was Smith’s work on books like Daredevil, Green Arrow: Quiver, Batman: Cacophony and Batman Widening Gyre that brought me out to the comic book store when nothing else did.
Bionic Man represents the second of Kevin Smith’s abandoned screenplays to be adapted to the comic medium. It shares little in common with last year’s entertaining Green Hornet run save for the fact that it’s a book I never would have read if the director’s name hadn’t been on it. I have no real interest in Steve Austin as a character and have little to no knowledge of the universe he exists in but after two issues of Bionic Man I am fully ready to lay down my $3.99 every month.
My only complaints are with the first issue. It feels very much like the opening sequence or even pre-credit sequence of a film and thusly spends all of its pages setting up our main players. If this was a movie I would have been fully on board but because I had to wait an entire month for sequence two it kind of left a bad taste in my mouth. However, issue #2 ended up being hell-a cool. Gone was the weighty origin story and in its place we get dark humor ,fluid action and nice character beats. I’m still waiting for Steve Austin to get his SHAA SHAA SHAA SHAA on but in the meantime this is a worthy purchase.
VERDICT
Buy It- Overcomes a slow start to bring the action and humor. Steve Austin is a little bit Hal Jordan but I like that.
Review: Bionic Man #1-2 | Kevin Smith
