The Bounce #1
SPOILERS, because honestly, I couldn't muster up the give-a-rip to keep them out of this.
Just looking at the cover, you can figure going in that The Bounce is a character something like the Marvel character Speedball. The cover is one of those that has more of a magazine feel to it, than a comic, so okay, slicker production values maybe. Also, it's from Image, which means it's creator owned- in this case by Joe Casey and David Messina. So it's probably going to be fun, right?
I guess it depends on your definition of "fun," but one thing is for certain: this issue starts off with a bong. No, not a bang- a bong. As in bong hit...on the first page. Yeah. So meet our main character, Jasper Jenkins, aka The Bounce. Yeah, the guy who rebounds off of stuff is a pothead. The ironic thing being that pot is something that usually makes you want to sit around and do nothing...until you get hungry, anway...so I'm told. It's something I never saw a point in, so I don't really see the point of a superhero pothead either.
The best thing about the issue- and this isn't saying much- is that he has a brief fight with a supervillain called The Crunch, who mercifully never uttered the phrase, "It's Crunch time!" As he'd already killed the police chief and Mrs. chief in front of their kids, the fight was kind of pointless.
This is followed by a government powwow with some military brass and a Maxwell Lord wannabe named The Darling. He displays a "reality piercing" gateway he called The Grand Design, which looks almost exactly like the portals in Stargate SG-1.
That's followed up by Jasper finding a new high in The Fog, a guy who is the drug. Jasper falls into the high and finds himself somewhere else. And end of issue.
Sounds weird, right? You're probably thinking that I've ruined the whole comic for you with the spoilers, and well, yeah, pretty much. I just couldn't bring myself to care about this issue. And what is with the character names? They're all kind of generic. Generic characters are usually what creators give DC & Marvel, these days.
I appreciate that a comic needs a setup, but this issue was really disjointed. I'm sure the elements probably connected in later issues, but after this issue, I don't want to read anymore of this series. Starting at 5 stars, I'm dinging this issue 1 star for a drug using superhero, 1 star for generic character names, 2 stars for the Stargate ripoff, and a half star for overall disappointment. I'm leaving a half star, because I had hopes for this character, and still hope that later issues were better, bringing everything together. I doubt I'm going to want to find out anytime soon. Final score: 1/2 star. Apparently, I can't do half-stars anymore, and can't leave it at zero, so 1 star, under protest.
