Written by Brian Michael Bendis and Kelly Sue DeConnick
Illustrated by Lan MedinaCASTLE fans rejoice!! For the first time anywhere, Castle’s hero Derrick Storm comes to life in the pages of this all new graphic novel. This “adaptation” of Derrick Storm’s first novel adventure takes our hero from the gritty world of the private eye all the way to the globe-hopping intrigue of the CIA. Eisner Award-winning Marvel Architect Brian Bendis and red hot Osborn writer Kelly Sue DeConnick worked closely with Castle creator Andrew Marlowe to create the one thing millions of Castle fans have been asking for: their first real Derrick Storm adventure. A wall-to-wall, gritty, witty, globe-hopping detective thrill ride for fans of the hit TV show starring Nathan Fillion and Stana Katic, as well as fans of damn good comic books.
Through a series of what I assume are missteps and just dumb luck in my favor, I’ve ended up with an advanced copy of Brian Bendis, Kelly Sue and Lan Medina’s Castle graphic novel. But hey, I can’t complain too much, now can I? I love Castle!
Let’s see how the book did after the jump in a 100% spoiler-free review.
I’ve been a watcher of the television program Castle since it first aired, due to my appreciation of the work of Nathan Fillion, the show’s eponymous character. The show is, to be honest, sort of a run-of-the-mill detective show, with a mystery per episode that our detectives have to solve, and it’s up to the writer of each individual episode to attempt to create an impenetrable mystery for the viewer full of misdirection. All things considered, this hasn’t exactly been the case in the last season of the show, in which you could usually guess who the killer was in every episode by looking for what person shows up for a few seconds and then disappears. I keep watching because Fillion and co-star Stana Katic have great chemistry, and the show is inherently fun enough to forgive it’s otherwise fatal flaw.
The book, on the other hand, is a completely different entity. ABC, Andrew Marlowe and a series of ghost writers have released several “real” Richard Castle novels based on the show, starring Nikki Heat, but nothing of Derrick Storm (to my knowledge, anyway) has really been explored. Castle the show began with Castle the character abandoning Derrick Storm in favor of Heat, and since then we’ve largely been left in the dark on his adventures, aside from those perhaps more involved in the ARG of Castle than I am.
So now we have a graphic novel from Marvel’s golden boy Architect and a celebrated rising star writer creating what is, for all intents and purposes, the “definitive” Derrick Storm story, outside of it’s fictional counterpart. Following the adventures of Derrick Storm the detective, Storm is pulled into a CIA mystery involving missing/possibly rogue agents who Storm is tasked with finding. What unfolds is a rather high-stakes adventure that unfolds almost like a Dan Brown book/Ron Howard film (minus all the Jesus). Storm is paired up with Carla Strike, a CIA operative who knows what she’s doing and needs Storm but doesn’t neccesarily want to work with him.
Basically — the same dynamic as the show, toned down a tad, and with Nathan Fillion’s character being much more badass than he is on the show.
Bendis and Deconnick make an interesting writing pair. The two seem to work quite well together, to the point that it is only really apparent who had a hand in what scene a few times in the book. There are a few scenes which scream “Bendis!”, and there are even more that are reminiscent of Deconnick’s voice, but for the most part the book is rather seamless between the two. Bendis is certainly known for his dialogue and decompression, but the book on the whole strays from that outside of a few instances. If anything, this title is comparable to Bendis’ work on Fire more than his more well known pieces, just with a toned down sense of back and forth in the conversational parts. You can probably thank Deconnick for that, though. Deconnick’s voice is rather apparent in the title overall, and this book is somewhat comparable to her work in Osborn in both tone and character. Storm and Strike are both characters quick with wit, perfect for both Deconnick and Bendis to play around with, and with Bendis’ history in detective storytelling and Deconnick’s excellent character handling, the two are a great match for the title.
Continued belowThe odd thing about it, though, is that as much as the two work well as a pair, the book still feels a little lackluster. When taking into consideration the size of the book (112 pages, only 88 of which are story), one can’t help feel like you’re not given a real bang for your buck ($20). The story is rather quick, and a complete surface read of the text (i.e. not taking time to pause and enjoy the art) will take about the run time of an episode the show (40 something minutes or so). Things also seem to get a bit haywire towards the end of the story, with a bunch of new and rather important seeming characters being introduced in the span of a few pages before everything comes to a chaotic ending. While it appears appropriate to the book, once everything becomes a double cross of a double cross of a double cross of a double cross, the book focuses less on the curiousity of the CIA mystery established and more about who can fire off a gun first and in what direction. The books strengths lie in it’s mystery, not in it’s action, and it all comes cascading towards a seemingly rushed ending (which we’ll discuss more in a bit) that is not as satisfying as one would hope, and certainly not at the hardcover price of $20.
The art also detracts from the book a bit. I’m going to guess that despite doing otherwise great work in the book, Medina couldn’t meet the schedule of release (timed so this comic can come out as the new season premieres) and an additional artist, Tom Raney, was brought in. The two artists work does not match even remotely, with Medina using a much more realistic approach to his work than Raney, who has an inherently more loose and almost cartoonish style. Medina brings a strict tone aided by Scott Hanna’s inks and Sotocolor/Val Staples’ wonderful colors, whereas when Raney takes over partially towards the end with Dan Green on finishes, the visual tone shifts dramatically, and at arguably the worst part of the book to do so. This isn’t a flashback or some kind of side story; it’s simply a turn of a page and everything looks different, which doesn’t reflect well on the final product. That being said, the book certainly doesn’t look bad. Medina’s artwork is solid and clear, and as mentioned Sotocolor/Staples’ colors are a perfect compliment to the tone of the book. Even Raney’s art isn’t ostensibly bad, albeit slightly off tone, and both Raney and Medina do try and make Storm look a bit like Fillion and Strike look a bit like Katic, which is nice. It’s a nice looking comic overall, but the addition of Raney against Medina does throw it off balance.
The Castle comicbook is not bad at all. It’s a fun evening read, but it’s not essentially filling. Given previous work of Bendis and Deconnick, it almost feels like they had more to say and/or could’ve done more with more time/pages, but it’s also safe to assume that the book was trimmed and feared to non-regular readers and more general fans of the show. When looked at like that, as a book specifically geared for non-comic readers, the book succeeds in giving a general and good example of what comics do on a regular basis. For those familiar with Bendis and Deconnick’s work, though, chances are you’ll be left wanting to re-read things like Jinx or Osborn before coming back to Deadly Storm.
Final Verdict: 7.0 – Buy with the above information in mind.
Additionally, there’s something that bugs me about the book. This is unrelated to my review and is certainly a spoiler for part of the ending, but nevertheless is something that remained on my mind post-reading: the backmatter of the book talks about all the books that Richard Castle has “written,” including a synopsis of each of his Derrick Storm novels and Nikki Heat novels. In each of the Derrick Storm books, it is mentioned that he once again teams up with Carla Strike — yet at the end of the comic book adaptation of Deadly Storm, Strike is dead. So … did someone just not get a memo? Or is this supposed to just mess with me?
