This Book is a Horrible Blast from the Past
Creative Staff:
Story: Steven Grant
Art: Paul Gulacy
Colors: Jesus Aburto
What They Say:
H. G. Wells’s The Time Machine never seemed so real to Restin Dane—especially since he’s living the experience! Thrust into a real-life science-fiction epic, Dane is forced to defend the gentle Eloi from the fearsome Morlocks in a battle for dominance!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
The year is 2016 at the time of writing this review. I want you to keep that in mind as I talk about The Rook, and what makes it such a problematic book in the year 2016.
When you look at comic books from a bygone era, especially old adventure serials, you see many common themes. A muscular Action Man who always saves the day. A scantily clad damsel inspired by the works of Boris Vallejo. And usually some sort of savage beast of native who wants the Action Man dead. The cover of The Rook #2 should look very familiar if you’ve seen those old covers and laughed as the sheer absurdity and shamelessness.
Now, a satire of those old books could have worked for The Rook #2. Imagine a regular scientist from modern day going back and expected to act as an Action Man. The Rook #2 is more concerned with emulating those really terrible adventure serials, with no understanding that the year is 2016 and there is a reason no one writes old adventure serials anymore (except maybe Grant Morrison).
This book has almost all of the issues with those old stories and creates, honestly, a very boring experience. What started out as an intriguing idea to reboot an old character from comic’s past, has just become a cheap and uninspired attempt to emulate the Rook’s past success, with no conscious thought to how that would play out.
The new Rook travels to the 18th century to meet with his great great something grandfather Adam Dane, who’s building the first time machine. As we saw at the end of the first issue, Rook’s grandfather is friends with H.G. Wells and his books are based on Adam’s escapades. After helping Adam finish the time machine, Rook travels to the future and find his lost ancestor. The Rook #2 is based on The Time Machine, and we learn that creepy yellow monster from the first issue was a morlock. Rook travels into the far future where the Eloi, instead of the subservient sub-humans from the book, are now savage creatures who use primitive weapons to kill their morlock oppressors.
When I reached the end, I wasn’t disappointed, instead I was very sad. The Rook had such a strong opening, with a story that reset the lore for the reboot but also left all those doors open for future stories. This issue was just a jumble of old ideas attempting to mix with the new status quo. There are so many things that will push new and returning readers away except for the most diehard Rook fans. Rook loses all of his qualities from the first issue, such as being a younger and more inexperienced time traveler. He becomes an Action Man who saves the hot Eloi girl and his grandfather with a gun because that is what the plot says he should be doing. Adam becomes grizzled old vet who constantly bosses Rook around and slaps women. Oh yes, he gives the Eloi woman a good old fashioned 18th century slap. It is awkward to read and made me squirm in my seat. It’s bland action mixed with two characters who lost every engaging aspect of their personalities to make more room for the action. This story is hard to read, but the art is even worse.
I gave the art a pass in the first issue because the colors were so vibrant and had unique monster designs. However, Paul Gulacy commits one of the greatest sins of comic art. In one panel, the Eloi love interest, the one Adam slapped, is wearing a piece of cloth over her breasts. On the very same page in another panel, the cloth changes to a thin vine which you can see on the cover. This sudden change may have been made so they could put a sexy girl in a vine suit on the cover, but the fact the artist did not fix these obvious errors just makes this book seem like a lazy blob of discordant ideas. Somehow, the faces are even worse than that obvious art flub. The expressions of the characters in this book are baffling at times, and there’s one point where Rook just makes one of the goofiest expression I’ve ever seen. That expression was so bad I can’t take him seriously as a character ever again.
I liked the first issue and this book still has some ideas that made the first issue good such as the new Rook’s obsession with time travel and his naivete. However, The Rook #2 just infuriated and bored me, and the art couldn’t even save what might have been a fun adventure. Give this issue a skip because it does not deserve your money.
In Summary:
The Rook travels into the future to save his ancestor from a group of morlocks. He saves a hot woman, and it is implied they will become a couple. This book is basically a bunch of action scenes are strung together with no cohesion with art that has devolved into D grade schlock. This book is somehow even blander than that description and will just leave you bored at best or angry at worst.
Grade: D
Age Rating: 16+
Released By: Dark Horse Comics
Release Date: November 18th, 2015
MSRP: $3.99
