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The Book Of Lost Souls #6
Book Released: 05 April 2006
Review posted: 17 April 2006
Writer: J. Michael Straczynski
Artist: Colleen Doran
Colors: Dan Brown
Publisher: Marvel/Icon
2.00 out of 5 Stars
Reviewed by Matt Rawson
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J. Michael Straczynski has been hit-or-miss as far as his
comic work is concerned, but so far I have liked The Book Of Lost Souls.
Each issue, with the exception of 4 and 5, have been
self-contained, yet seem to be chapters in a much bigger story. However,
the characters are a little clichéd; the main recurring cast so far
includes a “Lost Soul” turned shepherd of sorts, Jonathan (no
surname is given), and a cat named Mystery. Jonathan is given the task
of intervening at crossroads in people’s lives and offering them
a choice — the motive being saving them from what he believes is evil.
Mystery has so far walked beside Jonathan, offering many a Cheshire Cat
The one redeeming factor of this issue is Colleen Doran’s
always beautiful artwork, although a better example of her talent can be
found in her own brilliant series A Distant Soil.
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pseudo-riddle and arrogant comments about his own superiority to just about
everything. One cliché is the fact that Jonathan’s origin —
suicide following a life of rejection and torment — is just not
believable at all considering he looks like a quasi-Victorian male supermodel.
And as far as Mystery goes, does anyone think an arrogant,
riddling cat named Mystery isn’t cliché?
In issue #6 we are treated to the story of Creation in a puzzling,
opaque fashion told by Mystery to a girl who followed Jonathan
into his lair in the previous issue. Nothing in the tale is overly
creative and seems to be taken directly from the Bible, if slightly altered.
Good and Evil remain amorphous things that are more confusing
than mysterious, and the central theme of the issue is that if Adam and Eve
had no knowledge of what was right and wrong, then how could they have
known that eating the fruit was bad? This theme is not well-explained as
a part of the overall story, but I did get the notion that something was there
connecting the idea to the “Lost Souls” that Jonathan wanders around saving, but even upon re-reading it I
was still a bit confused as to what the connection was exactly. Again, most incoherencies can be attributed to Mystery’s pseudo-Cheshire way of never satisfactorily
explaining anything.
I don’t feel much guilt in revealing that when we come out of
Mystery’s tale we find the girl asleep. If
the characters can’t even stay awake for the length of one issue’s
story, how can Straczynski expect anything more from the reader?
The one redeeming factor of this issue is Colleen Doran’s
always beautiful artwork. Although a better example of her talent can be
found in her own brilliant series A Distant Soil, she has fittingly altered
her style a bit for The Book Of Lost Souls. It appears that she is using a
tech or quill pen for the
inking, giving it a different look than the fluid brushwork of A Distant
Soil. I have seen Doran change her style for several
projects, but the one unifying element is that it is always good. Accompanying
Colleen Doran’s linework is the beautiful coloring of Dan Brown;
his subtle variations of tone and hues enhance Doran’s lines,
giving the book it’s otherworldly atmosphere.
As I said before, I do like this series, but this particular
issue was disappointing and leads me to believe that Straczynski’s
goal is for The
Book Of Lost Souls to be the next Sandman. The
Book Of Lost Souls chiefly relies on a made-up mythology
sifted from actual mythology, but doesn’t even touch the
brilliance that was Neil Gaiman’s masterpiece. I will stick with
this series to see where it leads, but I do hope there are fewer issues like this one.
—CCdC—
Cover image used without explicit permission in accordance with the "Fair Use" provision of US copyright law.
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