Written By Brian Wood
Illustrated By Grant BondAcclaimed writer Brian Wood pens the latest comics epic based on the hit CW TV series Supernatural!
On an academic break while at Stanford, Sam Winchester visits the United Kingdom on what is meant to be a sleepy trip…but on his first day he meets the alluring “Emma of the isles,” and his visit gets a thousand percent less boring! “Caledonia” will be an unparalleled adventure in the SUPERNATURAL saga as the Winchesters travel to Scotland!
Are you a fan of Supernatural? You know — the adventures of the brothers Winchester?
Do you like comic books?
If you answered yes to these questions, this book might just be the book for you. However, does it fly high like Castiel or sink to the pit?
Check some thoughts after the jump!
This is a strange little book from what could be described as an unexpected creator team. Brian Wood, being someone who has primarily done creator-owned work, wasn’t someone I would’ve expected to write a media tie-in to a popular TV show like Supernatural. I probably would expect it from the artist Grant Bond, however, as he seems to have primarily done tie-ins to other properties like Assassin’s Creed, Megamind, and — well, now Supernatural. Nevertheless, together they put together a book that neither satisfies nor dissatisfies. It just rather is.
I will admit Brian Wood is a creator with whom I’m largely unfamiliar. I have the first volume of DMZ in my Trade Stack, but it stands unread at press time. It does seem like Wood is a fan of the show, and it comes through in the writing. He writes Sam Winchester like a fan of the series who understands Sam’s introspective nature. However, while he’s still introspective, he’s s unburdened by the show’s narrative, since this takes place during his college years while studying abroad in Scotland.
However, some inconsistencies don’t go unnoticed. During this period, Sam and Dean weren’t much of a family, and didn’t speak to one another, so why is Sam referring to his possible conquest of the female lead as something Dean would be jealous of? Why would he actually care? In addition, it strikes me that while Sam was in college, he’d do his best to avoid the whole “hunting thing” and instead he would like to go to a lecture at the University of Edinburgh, because he is a nerd. However, that would cancel out the need for a book in the first place, so I can forgive that.
The story as it’s told works quite well from the surface, and is still fun to read, albeit a little confusing. The book ends on a note that leaves me wondering who the bad guys are; I feel like we didn’t meet them, and the arc only has one issue left (out of the total six). However, maybe this will all tie-in together in some way.
On the other end of the spectrum, I’ve been trying to figure out a way to express my feelings for the art that don’t make me sound like a pretentious jerk. I like the art, I really do, but I feel that it doesn’t QUITE fit the mood for a Supernatural comic. SPN has always had a gritty look to it, and why not? It’s a horror series after all. However, while this book tries to go for a gritty atmosphere, the cartoonish character designs hamper that atmosphere more than it helps. It ends up looking like a cheap flash cartoon based upon Supernatural. Sam still has his trademark Season One Hair and he still kind of mopes around like a depressed moose, but it doesn’t carry the same feel. Furthermore, if I wanted to nitpick, I would wonder where this Scottish Hunter “Emma of the Isles” came from, because she is conspicuously the same height as Sam. Sam, who is played by Jared Padalecki, is 6 foot 5 inches tall; she’s just as tall as Sam, which makes for a really odd pairing. (Is this a nitpick? Probably, but it is a bit distracting, coming from a fan of the show.)
Unfortunately, I can’t really recommend this book for anyone who isn’t a fan of the show. Casual SPN fans would probably get a kick out of it, but the only people that MIGHT care would be the hardcore fans, and even then, they probably wouldn’t be too happy about it.
Final Verdict: 5.0 — (Fans) Browse with caution.
