The Seeds #1 Review (David Aja, Ann Nocenti)

From what I’ve read of Ann Nocenti - New 52 Catwoman, Katana and Joker’s Daughter (the latter - just, no) - I’d say she’s arguably the worst comics writer working today. But hey, that’s a competitive category maybe she deserves a second chance? Maybe she’s improved in the 5 or so years since I last read something by her? Nope!

The Seeds is set in a dystopian future. There’s a wall keeping people out. Guards are everywhere. I know, the imagination, right? The air is so bad people have to wear old timey gas masks (why old timey? A contrivance to hide certain characters’ true nature - hack writer Nocenti strikes again!). A journalist with ‘tude wants to write about the wall but her boss wants her to write click-bait, which apparently in the future means writing about a club where people take drugs to see their own deaths. That sounds like a legitimate story, not click-bait! Click-bait is listicles of celebrities who either lost weight, got fat or both!

So yeah, even though it’s the first issue, already I can tell this is a hot mess. The world-building is shaky and uninteresting, none of the characters are original or likeable (one of the first things we see the journo do is offer cigarettes to a kid), and it’s unclear what the story or point is.

But, oh, David Aja’s art - so pretty! The publisher knows Aja is the real draw here, that’s why his name appears first. The whole time I kept wondering: David Aja, you could have your pick of writers to work with, why, WHY would you pick the worst one?? This comic looks so damn stylish, more so than his art did during his Hawkeye run with Matt Fraction, and is basically the only reason to check out this series.

Karen Berger, who oversaw such iconic titles as Preacher, The Invisibles, Transmetropolitan, Y: The Last Man, Fables, and Scalped, among others, at Vertigo, can’t seem to find the same quality in her Berger Books imprint at Dark Horse. Once it’s published as a collection and you see it on a shelf, The Seeds will be worth picking up just to flick through and glory in the art, but I can’t imagine Nocenti’s going to somehow grow anything good out of the remaining three issues with her ever-stodgy writing.

The Seeds #1 is a terrific-looking but immensely boring and trite read - Ann Nocenti is a writer nobody need ever consider giving a second chance!