Rising Stars: Born In Fire
Writer: J. Michael Straczynski
Pencils: Chapters 1 & 2 Ken Cha, Chapters 3-8 Christian Zanier (over layouts by Ken Lashley)
Inks: Chapters 1 & 2 Jason Gorder, Chapters 3-8 Livesay with Edwin Rosell, Victor Llamas, Marlo Alquiza
Publisher: Top Cow Price: $19.95 US ($31.75 Canadian)
A celestial event marks all the children conceived during its display in the sky. Marked with a vast variety of powers, this is their story, spanning 60 years. Snapping back and forth in time, we see many of the characters from their childhood years to, where appropriate, the grave.
Straczynski, best known for his well-planned TV series, Babylon 5, has approached this series in the same way. He has an overall story to tell. One with a discrete beginning and ending, which holds a definite appeal in an age of rambling, endless, seemingly pointless storylines.
In terms of the story, I have no complaints worth noting at this stage. There's an interesting twist to the already intriguing premise, and as I'm getting back into the swing of these reviews I'm remembering that it's best not to spoil things for people.
As for the artwork... well, it improves once the switch occurs in the third chapter. A great deal of it seems to be due to Lashley's layouts, which try for more effective storytelling, everything else fairly reeks of early Image influences, where people learned to draw potential pin-up shots but had little to no idea of how to tell a story graphically. As with too many comics I feel a little sad when I see an interesting concept pulled down by questionable graphics. Still, as Tim Tjarks often says, your mileage may vary. Just because I'd mark this as improved radically if drawn by Alex Ross, Steve Rude, David Mazzuchelli, or maybe a Hitch/Neary or John Buscema/Tom Palmer combo doesn't mean you will.
This 8-issue arc, combined in a package for what I'm taking to be one cent less than the original issues would have cost all together, is a good deal. Hopefully Top Cow/Image is committed to producing the entire series this way, allowing the complete story to be available in a format that can theoretically stay on store shelves indefinitely.