Cowboy Ninja Viking #1
Apr 27th, 2010 | By Jason Kerouac | Category: Image, Reviews
Written byAJ Lieberman
Art by Riley Rossmo
Published by Image
52 Pick-Up Week 17:
Duncan suffers from Multiple Personality Disorder. He’s what folks in this fantasy world call a “triplet.” Can you guess the personalities? Well, there’s your setup.
I’m no psychiatrist, psychologist, or other form of mental health specialist, but I’m pretty sure this isn’t how MPD’s function, bouncing between all three personalities to react to a given situation. Again, I’m not 100% sure on that, but I always thought it was more of a “persona a is in control right now” sort of situation. Based on that, this book makes no sense. It’s a “cool” idea, and leads to amusing visual representations of the various personae involved. The story and dialogue are intriguin and wry. I just can’t get past how I feel Duncan should be written as opposed to what we actually get.
It seems to me the more engaging interpretation would have been for Duncan to be possessed of one personality or another, at any given time. Rather than having a conversation with all three, you’d never know which you were going to get. By the same token, you’d never know if Duncan was going to try to shoot his way out of danger, carve his enemies to pieces, or slink away in shadows. Like I said, it’s my hangup. I see the book unfolding in a totally different way than it did, and I can’t reconcile that with what I read.
If you want some zany fun and playful dialog, CNV is definitely recommended reading. If you plan on thinking about what you’re reading? I’d maybe try something else. Though I will say this… Rossmo’s art is the perfect fit for the story we’re given, and a true joy to behold.
Cowboy Ninja Viking #1 gets a fitting 3 out of 5 unimpressive desks.
Quirky books like this are all over the place out there, and you can certainly do worse than CNV. Then again, for my money, you can do better, too.
MPD is actually called DID now. There is a state where the personalities co-habbit and the primary is aware of what the other personality is doing, and jumps can be spontaneous at times. The triplets were artificially made to be the way they are. The last part Issue #5 will be released someday and they still haven’t explained everything about the origin of the triplets. Lieberman is going to get a lot of miles out of the concept. I really enjoy the golden age style as well. I think the first 5 read as a trade are going to hook a lot of people as fast as a $2 crack rock.
I tried it for 3 issues and decided to pass on it. It didn’t grab me but I did want to give it a chance. Jason you summed up my opinion of the book very well…scary isn’t it?
HA! More and more people are agreeing with me! First Thacher, then Nick, now you! THE POWER!!! THE POWER!!!!!!!
Also, Sean, the 5th issue IS out. The trade is supposed to hit this month if it hasn’t already.
Yeah, I was all hyped on the idea of this book, but the execution is a little off. The time jumps are very confusingly placed (just parts of a page sometimes) and the overall story is pretty weak after a few issues. Plus, by issue 5 you can tell they sort of started running out of cool jobs to be personalities.
Yeah, that was the other thing I wasn’t too keen on. As a unique character, I at least found the concept intriguing, if not the execution. The fact that there were others - and I felt like we were going to be incessantly slapped in the face with Sous Chef/Cyclist/Haberdasher and Repo Man/First Mate/Paleontologist - really gave me no desire to keep reading.
I’m surprised they didn’t add “Pirate” and “Zombie” to finish out the “stuff that people think are cool and/or funny on a t-shirt” theme.
@Jason
Yeah the issue came out on the 28th at my shop. there was a bit of a distribution problem with it nationwide though, kind of an unofficial delay. Reviewers had review copies and reviews written almost 3 weeks before I saw it on a shelf.
But everybody likes a different flavor. While we can agree on the awesomeness that is Marvel Universe figs, and the X-men, and how disapointing Blackest Night was. We will just have to agree to disagree on this one.
I actually didn’t like the 5th issue as much as some of the previous ones, because it didn’t seem to make sense. I think Lieberman has a little polishing to do on some of his writing, but the lame personalities are part of what makes this book so good to me. I’ve been trying to keep track of them in my reviews of the title on the message boards. Yeah it gets confusing, but the story captured my interests and became almost a game to read.