Scattered #4 Comic Review

-Gregg Dietz
Reviews Editor

Scattered is a comic book series created, written and drawn by Jason Dube, about a group of supernatural teenagers that have to deal with all the tribulations of growing up. I haven’t had the opportunity to read issues 1-3 so this is merely a review on issue 4. The story follows 4 characters, Allen; cursed by his ex-girlfriend to be able to see the spirit world and has the power to summon an angel at will. Anna; a normal girl who is seemingly in love with Allen. Genesis; A girl that has been around since the birth of the earth and charts its history by painting her face. Lastly Steve; After his sister died, he went into the studies of dark and white magic to become a mage. The issues plot focuses on Steve, he's upset that Allen gets all sorts of attention and decides to do something about it.

The overall plot is pretty fun with these characters already knowing each other and having history. Seeing them interact with each other as if the reader is a third party bystander is great for story building. It was as if the world was alive and had a heartbeat. Each character feels as they would be a teenager, along with all the angst that come with it. Being awkwardly in love and dealing with that, being jealous and having to come to terms with that, it works in this supernatural setting.

The art style is quite unique. With broad edges on all the characters and colorful designs make for fun characters to look at. The style is a bit reminiscent of Jhonen Vasquez’s style with showing the angst of the characters through art design. Each character looks so different from one another that it’s easy to garner a personality from them. For example, Steve’s outfit is very much the loner type teen who has his nose in books but will emerge to do something interesting. Anna was probably the most interesting to me in terms of design because she is the one character without powers. Yet her design says everything about her

My gripes with the comic are the dialog. A lot of the interactions are so very basic and bland. This is the only thing without its own character. Each line of dialog reads as if it was being said by the same person and not as each individual. That’s not to say that this isn’t attempted with how each character feels in a given situation. It just needs to have some kind of personality for each character in each dialog bubble. I want to feel that these characters lines matter because they are each so unique. The only other critique I have is i would like to have a better sense of the surroundings of stages where characters are. Many times, I was confused as to where they were and if it mattered. Just a bit more clarity on that. Respectively though, this could all stem from this being the only issue I’ve read and it’s more established in earlier issues.

Overall its an interesting story with fun lively characters that I would like to continue to read about. If you have a pension for angsty characters that have powers and rich history, check this one out. I give this Scattered #4 a 8.5 outta 10.

Will you pick up Scattered? Are you currently reading it? Let us know in the comments below, on our Facebook Fan Page or tweet us @MissionStartP. You can follow Gregg on twitter @ChubRockGeek and watch his lets play series, “Guerilla Gaming”, on the MissionStartPodcast Youtube page.

If you are interested in getting Scattered for yourself, you can buy the issue at most comic book stores, download a copy online from http://comics.drivethrustuff.com or directly from Scattered Comics at www.scatteredcomics.com

Thanks for Reading