“Yesterday’s” Comic> Max Rogers #2

I already did the action figure joke last issue.

Max Rogers #2

John Dorsey Communications (February, 2013)

“Kaboom!!!”

WRITER/ARTIST: John Dorsey

I tried some other formats that Drive Thru Comics offered but none of them could rescale to read this properly. That will make more sense in the review.

Aurelia has a bit of fun with our heroes before letting them know that she did transport here with them and take over her counterpart’s life. Together, the trio work to stop the enemy armada from attacking Earth, but it isn’t easy with Zod having the final authority and a killer robot “pet” of his own. Max comes up with a plan that allows Aurelia to get the enemy ships to jump at the same coordinates, blowing up the armada as they smash into each other, basically ending the war. Max, Cleo, and Aurelia manage to escape and Max wins over Destiny…in that reality. Returning to their own and being told this isn’t the last time the Omega Force is going to call on their services, everything is back to normal. However, someone else made the jump, and he’s not their ally.

What they got right: That’s a clever plan by Max in how to stop the invading armada. The character, vehicle, and background designs are still impressive. Overall the story is pretty good with some decent acton.

What they got wrong: The characters are still stiff, though the facial expressions are getting better. I’m still not convinced the alternate universe angle was needed, though Dorsey apparently has plans for this concept. This is the last issue in my Drive Thru library so I won’t get to learn what it is. Destiny in this reality falling for Max so easily seems forced so our hero can get the girl, but still be out of luck in his own reality, but we don’t know what their counterparts’ connection was. I have to feel sorry for alt Max’s girlfriend right now…and for the Max, Cleo, and Aurelia of that reality when they have to figure out what happened while they were wherever they were during all this. Cleo’s life hasn’t changed in this reality outside of being a hero now, but Max just lost his girl and now has a new girlfriend he may or may not actually know, and Aurelia just betrayed her dad and her people but it wasn’t actually her and she’s probably still evil. Okay, maybe I don’t feel so sorry for her.

What else is there?: I think I see what Dorsey is trying to do with this format. If the pages could size properly on my monitor, as you spin through the pages you’d have a sort of fake animation effect that makes it feel more like a motion comic that didn’t get past the animatic stage. Unfortunately the execution is hampered by the aforementioned resizing issue and the dividing line that does eventually go away. I can guess how this would work in print form, though not in the usual orientation and size for a comic. It’s a nice idea, but he might have been better off picking either comic or animation and sticking with it. It’s an odd way to read a comic, and while this isn’t the first time I’ve seen this attempted it never really worked for me personally, though it might work for others. My brain says “comic”, my eyes say “animation”, and the two ideas just clash. This is a personal thing, not a critique of the product, so your experience may be better.

What I think overall: It was okay, and it’s an experiment that if continued might work out or might not. I’m just not invested enough to continue even if I could.