Edenwood vol. 1

Tony Daniel has shown he’s a hell of an artist over the years, whether he’s working on superhero titles like “Batman” or creator-owned joints like “Nocterra.”  Now he’s doing the writing and art for his latest creator-owned venture and the result is an overstuffed mash-up of bog-standard character types, half-assed amalgamation of fantasy and real-world systems and technology, and your typical good-vs-evil conflict whose “OR IS IT?!” twist at the end still feels predictable.  But don’t worry, all of this is served up with a veneer of ultraviolence to make it all feel cool.  Daniel may have generated some buzz when he took over writing and illustrating “Detective Comics” at the start of the “New 52” era, but after reading this I think that was all down to the shock value generated in slicing the Joker’s face off rather than the actual quality of his writing.

Edenwood is the name of the interdimensional nexus where demons have been fighting witches for ages, and whose conflict has been bleeding over into the real world for some time now.  We’re given a brief introduction to high schooler Rion, his girlfriend Adelia, her younger brother Elias and his friends before being thrown into the thick of things with corpses coming back to murder people, chests exploding open from gunfire, and eyeballs hanging out of skulls.  This would all be very cool if a) I was still 15, and b) I actually gave a damn about any of these characters.

From there, we’re introduced into even more characters and are drip-fed Rion’s history in Edenwood and his present-day struggles.  All of which consist of the same chosen-one stuff that you can see in other comics or shonen manga.  The storytelling, though, feels very much on a level that’s aimed to engage with teenagers; though, it’s likely they’d be bored by its simplicity if they weren’t dazzled by the gore.  Daniel’s art makes it all look very slick, at least, though I was more impressed with his previous work on the above-mentioned titles.  Better to go back and read those if you want to see the creator at his best than continue on and see if this gets any better – especially after the gigantic addition of what look to be an entire legion of fantasy redshirts at the end.