Review: Pale Dark #1 & #2

REVIEW

From Isle Squared Comics comes Pale Dark created by Chuck Amadori and Ruvel Abril which sees our hero Subject K captured by the Pale Man and forced to endure a series of horrifying experiments with seemingly no rhyme nor reason to them.

Having sat down and read both issues of this book I am a little unsure of where it is going, the issues are trying to create a sense of mystery as to why subject K and his companions are undergoing these experiments and we are offered up a small bit of background that the Pale Man is a threat to whole world in a secret war that is being waged under the nose of the public. Unfortunately the plot jumps around a little bit too much to be able to follow, each point where you think the writer will stay on the book instead jumps to another scene and stays on some points where I thought it would move on quickly. As for the characters we do not get much on subject K as to why we would care that he is in this situation, we are given nothing on the character and without that hook it makes it difficult for the reader to become invested in the story, it makes sense to not know a lot about characters such as the Pale Man who is meant to be this overbearing presence.

The art from Abril unfortunately distracts the reader from the story Amadori is trying to tell. There is no sense of movement in the panels and each seems like its own piece of art instead of a piece of sequential art. It seems like the artist has used 3d models but, each of these looks incredibly stiff and the expressions are almost cartoonish in some instances that detract from the tone of mystery that the writer is trying to build with these first two issues.

Overall I cannot recommend these first few issues of Pale Dark, the story may move on and grow into something great but, for all the tones it tries to hit in both art and story it fails on nearly every point. It has an interesting premise and a set up that should be genuinely interesting but without the character development the reader is left cold to story and experiences of the characters throughout this story.

1/5

By Matt Deery

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Author Profile

Matt Deery

Matt Deery is an avid comic reader from the UK, relatively new to the writing scene but, enjoying being part of the Comic Crusaders team and getting to talk about some the books that I adore. Will read almost anything Marvel, with Spider-Man and Iron Man being my all time favorite comic book characters and has recently found a love for Image and Valiant books and generally anything Sci FI or Espionage related. Check out my twitter @brujah69ad if you want to stop by and talk comics, video games or movies!