Paranoid Gardens

It’s a place where anyone can go in order to get the care they need in order to get better.  Regardless of their race, gender, sex, whether or not they’ve got superpowers, or are some kind of alien, or supernatural creature.  Lou is the latest addition to the Gardens’ staff and she’s really good at making whoever she’s working with feel at ease.  She can’t fix herself, however, as the memory of her life prior to working here is a mystery to herself.  Not that this matters to the doctor who oversees the place as his agenda has changed.  Rather than looking out for the best interests of everyone there, he’s prepared to hand it over to a cult in exchange for eternal life.

All of this is illustrated fantastically by 2000 A.D. and Vertigo veteran Chris Weston.  His art boasts a fantastic level of detail that really gives the Gardens a sense of being as a real, lived-in place.  The man also has a strong design sense when it comes to depicting all of the various humans, aliens, and supernatural beings here, making them all come off as distinct.  The action, when it occurs is also handled well, and he’s also quite good with making his characters expressive too.

It’s just a shame that Weston is having to prop up a predictable story that’s further hamstrung by bad writing.  This is co-written by Gerard Way and Shaun Simon and while the former has demonstrated his skills with “The Umbrella Academy,” this feels like another case of the latter dragging him down, as with what happened on “The Fabulous Killjoys.”  Not only is the dialogue utterly pedestrian and lacking any sense of style, but we never get a sense of the characters beyond their designs.  Only check this out if you’re an avowed fan of the artist, or stories whose potential are tanked entirely by the writing.