I get why stories sometimes start in the middle or just go straight into an action scene before doubling back. Normally it’s a scene or two, a few pages, to grab your attention AND THEN the story starts properly so you appreciate and understand the opener more.
The first issue of Jordie Bellaire and Vanesa R. Del Rey’s Redlands is one big action scene and it doesn’t work because everything is rushed and nothing is established so it’s impossible to care about anything.
It’s the deep South, nighttime, a police station is under siege by unknowns, and people start getting killed. There’s no main character to latch onto much less any idea of what the story is supposed to be. This reads less like a first issue and more like the conclusion of an arc. Anyway, it’s a story of a trio of witches who come to take over the town for reasons.
Bellaire’s writing and storytelling is weak, Del Rey’s art is scratchy and oddly amateurish-looking, the horror isn’t scary, the action isn’t exciting, no part of it is memorable and it read very messily as a whole. Redlands tries to be a spooky version of Southern Bastards but instead it’s like a slightly more adult episode of Charmed.
Maybe this issue will read better in collected form but I just have a feeling this title is plain not good. An awkward, dull and shallow start, Redlands #1 failed to interest me in pursuing the rest of this arc.
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