“NVRLND” #1 takes the concepts in Peter Pan and transplants them to a modern day club in Hollywood. It’s probably more fun to find how Stephanie Salyers, Dylan Molick, and Leila Leiz adapt the characters and stories of that old series to modern times than to actually engage with the thing.
Written by Stephanie Salyers & Dylan Molick
Illustrated by Leila Leiz and Thomas Chu
NVRLND is a dark and magical retelling of Peter Pan set in the present-day landscape of Hollywood. Wallflower turned wild-child Wendy Darling befriends the fierce Tiger Lily and falls into the music rave scene of the underground club NVRLND. Intoxicated by the music, Wendy falls for the enigmatic Peter, lead singer of the band The Lost Boys. Peter is everything a girl could desire: handsome, daring, and reckless. Wendy discoveres Peter is mixed up with the mysterious tattoo artist James Hook, who preys upon the young who flock to Peter, “hooking” them on the new designer drug, Pixie Dust. You think you may know the truth about NVRLND, but the truth is, you know nothing. NVRLND is a story for anyone who never wants to give up, but may not live long enough to have a chance.
Neverland is a nightclub and Peter Pan the lead singer of The Lost Boys. Captain Hook has been hanging around, delivering this substance known as pixie dust, which makes kids believe they can fly, that they can touch the sky; meanwhile, the death toll is slowly rising. He’s also a tattoo artist, but of course. Wendy Darling’s family has recently emigrated to Hollywood, where her father has just been made District Attorney and she always manages to get on her mother’s bad side. “It’s time for you to stop acting like a child and grow up,” Mrs. Darling sez.
This is “NVRLND” #1, a new crime thriller from Stephanie Salyers, Dylan Molick, and Leila Leiz, published by 451 Media. It opens with Peter having sex with some groupie backstage before a show, just to show you how edgy it is. He also has pierced nipples, so you know it’s cool.
In all honesty, I did have a lot of fun seeing how Salyers, Molick, and Leiz used the classic characters. There were several times reading through this I’d chuckle and go, “Oh, okay. That’s how they’re handling Tiger Lily.” Captain Hook’s tattoo parlor is called The Jolly Roger. The creative team introduce the concept of never growing up as the kids all dying before they’re 18. I’m not sure why Salyers, Malick, and Leiz chose to use modern day interpretation of the Peter Pan characters for this story, and their inclusion feels mostly like a nudge-nudge-wink-wink bit of referencing.
“NVRLND” #1 has a lot of issues with its pacing, too. There are moments where Salyers, Molick, and Leiz are able to generate some genuine tension and intrigue, for example, the scene where DA Darling and Police Chief Lily investigate a crime scene. Sure, it sticks to a Law & Order: SVU formula, but…I mean, that formula works? Wendy’s first introduction to Peter works, too, with a small build-up before a great splash-page revelation. But, Wendy and Tiger Lily getting into a fight reads awkwardly and out-of-nowhere. For a minute, I thought I was missing some pages of the comic. Peter’s confrontation with Hook doesn’t take off. Even the opening has this abruptness to it.
A lot of this is because “NVRLND” #1 bites off a lot more than it can chew. Salyers, Molick, and Leiz try to set the scene, establish the characters, make sure we get all the allusions to Peter Pan, and establish stakes able to exist independently of the Barrie stories. And 451 Media is only giving them four issues to do so. We’re given a lot of two-page scenes, and it seems like everyone involved is so quick to get off to the next part they never settle into a rhythm or tempo for the book as a whole.
Leiz does nicely with drawing the kids in the book. She takes the time to give them individual outfits and captures their body language. The same can’t be said of her adults, all of whom look like the kids. Maybe it’s a bit of irony that Mrs. Darling tells Wendy to grow up when she looks like she just underwent about ten thousand dollars worth of plastic surgery? Yet, even Tiger Lily’s mom looks like she’s in college. Possibly. Leiz also struggles to nail down expressions between characters. There’s something off about most of them and they don’t always match what’s going on in the script.
In the end, “NVRLND” #1 is a bit of a mess. Although the story doesn’t do anything interesting with the Peter Pan characters except transport them to modern day Hollywood, it’s fun seeing how Salyers, Molick, and Leiz incorporate them into this world. However, it’s never as exciting as it should or as interesting as it could be, at least for this introduction.
Final Verdict: 5.5 – It’s like Peter Pan, but on SVU.
