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Review: Twelve Reasons to Die #1

By | May 9th, 2013
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A comic based off of a concept rap album by Ghostface Killah?

Well, alright.

Matthew Rosenberg and Patrick Kindlon
Illustrated by Breno Tamura, Gus Storms, Kyle Strahm and Joe Infurnari

Twelve Reasons To Die is a brutal tale of gangsters, betrayal, and one vengeful soul hunting the 12 Dons who conspired his murder. Created by Ghostface Killah and produced by RZA, this hard-knuckled horror/crime hybrid follows multiple timelines – and multiple artists – in the quest for revenge.

Adapting a concept album into a comic book is a tricky thing. In the past, specifically with the Coheed comics for example, it doesn’t necessarily work — music taps into a different emotional connection than a traditional narrative does, and that alone allows a story to grow in different ways based on how you hear it. With a book, though, you’re given a very specific interpretation of the material that may cheapen the previous experience, and if you flub up even slightly within the explanation of your story you lose the audience. That’s why it’s not often recommended to work backwards like this; it’s one thing to write a comic and then give it a soundtrack, but to adapt the other way? You’re almost always setting yourself up for failure, or at least a disappointed fanbase. (Depending on how die hard the fanbase is, I suppose.)

Such is the case with “Twelve Reasons to Die.” An adaptation of Ghostface Killah’s new record, with input from Ghostface himself, this is a Scorsese-esque tale of gangsters and revenge, as a man named Tony Stark works his way up in the underground only to eventually be betrayed. It also offers up the result of the story and what happened because of Tony’s betrayal, as twelve records with mysterious powers are hunted for said power. It makes sense if you listened to the album, but that’s also the primary reasons the comic doesn’t work.

See, “Twelve Reasons to Die” is a very incomplete story. It’s a first issue so obviously not all cards are going to be placed on the table, but due to the book being split into two we’re given a fairly indecipherable mess of ideas. This is a situation where the creators behind the book ostensibly believe you’ll go in for the long haul due to the book’s pedigree, but if you look at the book from a story standpoint there’s a lot left to be desired. The first story fails to really establish the primary plot of the book (the one described in the solicit, or available to hear on the album), wasting a lot of time with filler material on characters you didn’t come here to read about; the second story inherently operates on the idea that you have listened to the album and know what happens, because otherwise it’s just a weird little tale that doesn’t fit into the general story. It may work better if this was presented as a series of shorts, perhaps even an anthology title of sorts, but it’s not — it’s one singular narrative that’s broken apart in an uneven fashion, and it’s incredibly messy.

Still, it is at least fair to note that the book accurately translates some if not all of the ideas and themes prevalent in Ghostface Killah’s album. Despite the incomprehensible split in the two stories, most of the themes found on the album can be found here. Ghostface raps about having a false sense of security in a quest for power, and that’s primarily what the first story is about. It’s hard to judge the comic on the grounds that you’d regularly offer up criteria, because it’s not supposed to work alone — it’s an extension of the album. In that regard, it’s a tease towards a bigger story and a reflection of it’s source material, which is perhaps it’s saving grace.

However, if you’re unfamiliar with the album then the book just doesn’t work like it perhaps wants to. It needs the music to inform the story, and it does not stand well on its own.

That said, Black Mask has put together a great talent of artists to illustrate the book. Artistic duties are split based on stories and actions, but the various tales within the book all show off the remarkable talent of the illustrators involved. There’s no one style to the book and that makes each particular installment more engrossing based on it: Tamura’s half of the book is vibrant, with uneven and jagged lines that help accentuate the dark lifestyle the characters are entwined with, with the violence more jagged and visceral to accommodate; Storms, Strahm and Infurnari on the other hand put together a more even horror-based tale that happens after the main story in a fashion akin to a puzzle, offering up a few pieces that act as clues to where the story ends up while straying just enough to make it seemingly stand on its own, somewhat like an anthology piece. Having Jean-Paul Csuka color the whole book keeps it even throughout, which helps make segments that may otherwise clash flow evenly within one another, and thus making the art of the book its main saving grace.

Continued below

If there is one thing that “Twelve Reasons to Die” proves beyond a shadow of a doubt, it’s that some ideas belong best in the medium for which they are originally intended. In this case, the bravado and machismo inherent in a lot of Ghostface’s lyrics don’t work on the page (some of which border on offensive if they weren’t so ridiculous), and trying to balance two stories at once in a Memento-esque fashion just doesn’t pay-off well. Still, “Twelve Reasons to Die” isn’t a horrible comic; it’s just clearly the work of someone who doesn’t fully understand the benefits to the storytelling medium, despite the talented bevy of artists involved. Over time this may evolve into a more engaging read, but as an issue-to-issue experience it doesn’t seem to work.

But, that makes sense, right? You wouldn’t listen to the album one track at a time to get “the story,” would you? No, you would just listen to one track at a time because that track may be awesome. Music just has the benefit of being able to operate on its own accord, as a singular entity rather than a piece of a whole. That’s not something comics like this can achieve, and because of that “Twelve Reasons to Die” just feels like an incomplete and short read.

Either way, the easiest way to tell if you will like “Twelve Reasons to Die” is to read the first lines of the book: “If you had a pussy it’d be getting wet right now.” If that fills you with disgust, then this book is not for you; if it makes you laugh, then there’s probably something here for you. Gauge how you feel about that one line, because trust me — on this one, you can go with your gut.

Final Verdict: 6.0 – Browse, but most likely wait for the collection


Matthew Meylikhov

Once upon a time, Matthew Meylikhov became the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Multiversity Comics, where he was known for his beard and fondness for cats. Then he became only one of those things. Now, if you listen really carefully at night, you may still hear from whispers on the wind a faint voice saying, "X-Men Origins: Wolverine is not as bad as everyone says it issss."

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