Wall-E #3 (Boom Kids! – Torres / Luthi)
Set before the events of the blockbuster feature film, we learn how the unlikely duo of a robot and a cockroach became fast friends! You won’t want to miss an issue of this new ongoing series based on the smash-hit film from BOOM Kids!
As a geek and a father, I have been so happy with the work that has come out of Boom Kids! and I am such a fan that you would think that I was facebook stalking them. Boom Kids! has been a force of good for the family-friendly comic and a source of the continuing fan-love that is poured out for beloved characters from Disney, Jim Henson and Pixar. But even in that grand march of success, filled with the much adored icons, there usually is someone out of step… and this time his name is Wall-E.
Me and mine have been long-time fans of J. Torres. Joseph Torres has done so many out-of-this world fantastic books (favorites in my house have been Teen Titans Go! and Allison Dare, new book coming out soon! Here! very pumped!) and he has so much talent that it might literally ooze out of his hands and fingertips. So, I know it’s not the writing per se. Relative newcomer Morgan Luthi’s art stays very true to the Pixar original, so no issues there. Hmmmmmm, so why does this $2.99 book seem horribly two dimensional and like a five second read? Well, it might not be anyone’s fault (no, I didn’t all the sudden start working for the US Government), I just think that the transition of Wall-E from the big screen to the comic book might be a very tall order. While on screen, Wall-E had tons of personality, he had zero dialogue and everything the viewer got about Wall-E’s emotions came from Pixar’s exemplar animators. And that won’t transition to still page at all. Well, you toss the miss-matched media dynamic in with the fact the entire plot of the book revolves around befriending a cockroach and you do get something pretty… boring and static, but pretty. And really, are there kids out there wondering about Wall-E’s prequel adventures? I think there might be a great deal more interest in telling the tales post film. Ah, but that is just my opinion.
The bottom line is spend your $2.99 on some other Boom Kids! book, but leave Wall-E on the shelf.
Issue Grade: D
