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Testament #1
Book Released: 21 Dec 2006
Review posted: 15 Jan 2006
Writer: Douglas Rushkoff
Artist: Liam Sharp
Publisher: Vertigo
2.00 out of 5 Stars
Reviewed by Adam White
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Excluding my columns and interviews, this very writing stands as my
fiftieth comic book review for CCdC, so I wanted to
commemorate it by reviewing something supremely special. Instead, I
find myself writing about Testament #1, a series for which I
had high hopes yet was met with disappointment. Actually, my
expectations for ideas were met, it was simply the execution of those
ideas that fell a bit short, perhaps due to Rushkoff’s relative
newness to the comic book medium.
Rushkoff has a lot of potential as far
as story ideas go, but he needs to look more closely at the comic form
and evaluate the differences between what’s in the script and what
actually shows up on the page.
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In all the interviews and features prior to
Testament’s release, writer Douglas Rushkoff came across
as an intelligent guy with a lot of good ideas ripe for exploration in
comic form. After reading Testament #1 I still believe
Rushkoff has a lot of good ideas, I just don’t think he has yet fully
mastered writing for the medium of comic books. Rushkoff crams too
many ideas into the first issue much too quickly without allowing time
for anything to sink in; it seems as if it’s more of a fourth or fifth
issue and that you’ve missed something from earlier issues (that don’t
exist). The story jumps from Biblical times to the near future
without any connection beyond the obvious (Abraham, his son, and their
future selves) and feels unconnected despite the parallels. The
futuristic ideas tossed into the story are interesting but are
inadequately developed on the page — you get the idea that
Rushkoff knows exactly what’s going on and how everything works, but
simply doesn’t get it all across on the page (which is the only thing
the reader sees). I think that Rushkoff has a lot of potential as far
as story ideas go, but he needs to look more closely at the comic form
and evaluate the differences between what’s in the script and what
actually shows up on the page.
Liam Sharp provides solid art for the project and actually helps
clarify certain things that are more opaque in the story. Sharp’s
characters are all fully defined individuals, which gives the reader
the sense that this is a preexisting world and not a first issue of a
new series (which is a good thing, and contrasts the story’s negative
effects because of getting ahead of itself). If Sharp can get
Rushkoff in synch with him and match the story’s flow to that of
Sharp’s clear storytelling, the series will benefit from it and the
individual issues will become much more refined. Sharp brings his “A”
game to Testament and I think that his fluid, relaxed style will rub
off on Rushkoff after a few issues.
I still think that the series has a lot of interesting ideas, and
that Rushkoff and Sharp could have a potentially long-running Vertigo
series on their hands if only they can shape the story into something
more defined and clear to the readers. My advice, for what it’s
worth, would be to allow the series time to breathe — don’t rush
through the setup of the series’ world just to get to the good parts.
I think that the characters show promise and if Rushkoff focuses on
them and not just the plot, allowing the characters to tell the story,
then Testament will be one heck of a great series.
—CCdC—
Cover image used without explicit permission in accordance with the "Fair Use" provision of US copyright law.
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