The Savage Strength of Starstorm #1 // Review
The Great Imperium is looking for a weapon of massive power that has gone missing. There is evidently a great deal at stake. Master Draxus has vast resources at his disposal with which to find the weapon. It’s going to come as a bit of a surprise to him that finding the weapon might be a problem that involves a kid in high school on Earth. That kid is about to find himself entering a galaxy of danger in The Savage Strength of Starstorm #1. Writer/artist Drew Craig opens a pulpy superhero space opera adventure with the aid of colorist/letterer Jason Finestone.
Grant Garrison has just arrived at Kirby High. He’s dealing with all of the problems anyone has getting to know a new school. The good news is that he’s already met a kid with compatible interests, and there’s already a girl who might potentially have the same kind of attraction to him that he does to her. Then the alien comes to attack him, and a sleeper weapon of massive power awakens within him, and everything gets weird. Suddenly, dealing with being the new kid in school is the least of his problems. It’s not some minor bully who is after him. It’s something much worse.
Craig’s idea is not without its appeal. The story of Grant and the weapon he unwittingly carries follows in a long tradition of similar stories. The high school milieu drags the story a little. Far too many superhero stories have opened in high school, and Craig isn’t doing enough to make Grant’s high school appearance feel all that distinct. He’s just another superhero kid in high school. Once things really get going on the attack, the action takes hold, and Craig’s story begins to take on a bit of its own personality.
Drew Craig’s art feels weird and awkward with respect to the high school drama. Craig hasn’t quite managed to make any of the kids in Kirby High look young enough to be high school students. In and of itself, that wouldn’t be a serious issue, if it weren’t for the fact that Craig doesn’t seem to modulate the first-day high school drama all that well. Once the super-powered action gets going, Craig’s style fits the story perfectly. Grant’s power shoots across the page with intensely dynamic impact. The weapon that he’s wielding really feels like it might actually have the kind of power Draxus would tear up the entire universe to find.
Craig could drop the interpersonal drama altogether, and the title wouldn’t suffer at all. Judging from the intensity of the action and the way Craig directs it across the page, the entirety of the story could rest on action and drama with Grant and the weapon he’s wielding. It’s where Craig’s strengths lie. Focusing on that exclusively would make Starstorm that much more of an original on the comics rack. As it is now, Craig’s trying to do a little more than he’s capable of carrying with his art and writing. His talent doesn’t quite have the range for what he’s attempting in the first issue.
