ADVANCE REVIEW! Souled #1 will come out on March 25, 2011 at MegaCon in Orlando, FL. You can also pre-order Souled at DCBS.
The comic book industry nowadays is extremely competitive and hard to break into. For a new title to have success is difficult, but to have it when it comes from an small or independent comic studio is nearly impossible. Science fiction is also a pretty darned competitive market these days. If you don’t have an easy way to reach the die-hard fans of something like Star Wars or one of the other already big names, then you definitely need something massively unique to get people’s attention. Sadly, Souled doesn’t do much to excel either in the arena of comic books or sci-fi.
When it comes to independent comics I always root for them and I’m always excited to see what a new universe looks like. But instead of doing something with this first issue to stand out from the crowd the creators give us a mediocre — even boring, I must unfortunately say — standard space tale. I would tell you about the storyline if anything significant really stood out, but all we really get is a snoopy passenger, a casual ride through space, and a conclusion involving planetary weapons firing on the ship for no known reason. Maybe that at least would have been interesting except there was no significant mystery buildup, nor did the writing get me to care about the characters even slightly. Blow them out of space for all I care. Oh, I almost forgot — the ship is carrying mysterious cargo. But the fact that I almost forgot about it probably tells you how much that caught my attention.
The art, similar to the story, is nothing exciting. The panels and pages are not very well laid out and the figures themselves don’t look like they are drawn by a professional. I could go on, but I’d feel bad doing it.
Overall, the story is coherent, you art flows well enough to know what’s going on, and maybe future issues will produce plot points that can actually evoke interest, but on its own Souled #1 is very forgettable. With a price tag of $3.50 there’s just no way I can recommend this issue to you. I sincerely wish that I could, but, even as far as independent comic studios go, there are better ways to spend your money.