“Relics of Youth” #1

“Relics of Youth” #1 packs a lot of action and a large cast into its first issue, with mixed results. Warning: minor spoilers ahead.

Cover by Skylar Patridge

Written by Matt Nicholas & Chad Rebmann
Illustrated by Skylar Patridge
Colored by Vladimir Popov
Lettered by Andworld Design Nat Rodriguez keeps dreaming of an island. Soon, the dreams become waking visions. Alone and concerned, Nat manages to locate other teenagers across the globe who share her intense obsession with the unmapped enclave. And then, the strangest part: Every one of them wakes one morning with a mysterious tattoo. A tattoo only the six of them can see. Now, each of them knows no matter the obstacles in their way… they must discover this unknown paradise.

“Relics of Youth” #1 has a lot going for it in terms of premise and potential. Nicholas, Rebmann and Patridge spend a good amount of time picking out significant character details – most of them visual, thankfully – to help flesh out this first issue and speed us toward the site of the bulk of the series: the island. There’s scaffolding here that’s solid, but not necessarily unique right out of the gate.

It’s worth pausing for a moment to unpack what unique means. A story doesn’t have to be completely original to succeed, as most stories aren’t and many do, in fact, succeed. There’s an argument to be made for putting your own creative spin on a familiar concept. A group of special teenagers with diverse backgrounds trapped on an island with mysterious tattoos and potential powers has been done before, but that shouldn’t preclude another foray and “Relics of Youth” mostly shapes up as an intriguing entry in this arena. However, what’s required to set a familiar story apart from the pack is to either tell it so faultlessly it shines as an archetypal example, or find a unique entry point. In this regard, “Relics of Youth” stumbles just a bit in the first round.

As stated, Nicholas and Rebmann do a bit of work to make each character stand out. There’s Derek, who’s artistically skilled, obsessed with ‘80s genre films and undergoing chemotherapy. There’s Tristan, the quiet perfectionist with an overbearing father. There’s Garret, a kid with lots of money and a fractured family. Add in the former child star and the model military kid and you have a cast full of unique perspectives, cultures, classes and issues. The inevitable tension that arises from bottling them in a specific location makes for good storytelling potential, and feels natural enough to merit our attention. And then there’s Nat.

She’s a smorgasbord of familiar stereotypes, from the dyed hair, piercings and general punk wardrobe to her apparent skills as a hacker, her broken home life and her flair for the dramatic. Of all the characters on the page, she’s the least believable because she’s the most rooted in packaged counter-culture signifiers that’ve been thoroughly absorbed by the mainstream. She’s the product of the current comics landscape, and the shorthand used for her actually makes her more generic rather than unique or approachable. In short, she’s all too predictable as the driver for this story, and relying on her as the catalyst is what makes “Relics of Youth” stumble in its first issue. Positioning any of the other characters as the central figure in this story would be an intriguing way to skew this familiar narrative, but relying on Nat and her posturing from the beginning is treacherous and isolating even if there turns out to be a bait and switch later on.

Patridge’s art is a bit of a mixed bag. There are a handful of good storytelling moments to pick out here, like when Nat and Serena’s hands are featured with similar nail polish or the panel with two characters peering through a porthole in the abandoned ship. Otherwise, Patridge struggles occasionally to keep up with the story’s narrative load, and it shows in the details. Establishing Mia’s mother in the mirror’s reflection is a smart way to add depth to that panel, but when the background details disappear in the panel immediately below it the moment falls a bit flat. The same issue occurs with Tristan’s incredibly detailed view of the bridge from her luxury apartment – when we switch angles, her father’s moored in untextured space, and the only visual interest comes from some gradient work from Popov. An argument can be made that there’s a narrative balance here, but as it stands the panel feels unfinished, not crafted to evoke a particular reaction. There’s the occasional character who’s skewed to fit in a crunched panel, and one inset reaction panel of Nat that almost buckles under the weight of the giant full-cast background and the work above. Some of it is down to heavy inks, and a script that might be too packed with detail, but these issues add a roughness to the book that’s not always easy to ignore.

Popov’s colors are apt, with alternating bright and moody palettes that help pace out our emotional involvement in the book. Each character gets their own mini mood for their one-page intros, and the scene aboard the yacht before the storm is appropriately sunny and light. The set pieces on the island each have their own palette as well, which can make the scenes feel a bit unmoored from the whole, but within each scene there’s balance and subtlety. AndWorld Design’s lettering is competent, with a nice touch of roughness on the balloon stroke and narrative boxes that are distinct from the dialogue. The black background from the first page feels heavy and unnecessary, but picking them out is a good choice.

Overall, there’s nothing about “Relics of Youth” that condemns it as hopelessly generic, but there are a few warning signs that warrant a bit of hesitation. Nat’s perspective, some art details and a general sense of accelerated plotting mean nothing really has a chance to land before we’re whisked off to another location or plot detail. The next few issues should slow down the pace a bit now that we’re established, and we’ll just have to see how that goes.

Final Verdict: 6.0 – “Relics of Youth” #1 tempers its intriguing concept with a generic main character, rushed plotting and a few art issues to keep it from dazzling as a first issue.