Comic Review : Aveon 9 (volume 1)

The Plot

Humans have left Earth and moved to another planet called Aveon 9 because Earth was left uninhabitable by natural disasters. Here, over a period of time, humans have ensconced themselves as the ruling class, surpassing the native species' and have carved out dynasties among themselves. Their kingdom however is not peaceful nor does the entire native population support their rise. The story begins with the unfortunate accident of Counselor Zane of the House of Lunus in the city of Vexadus. It then shifts to follow the endeavours of Zane's son Tez, as he tries to find his way to the city to locate his father. This volume ends with Tez minutes away from entering the city.

And now on to the review. 

The Review

This is undoubtedly a very pretty looking book.

The cover, the art, the colours, the paper-stock, the binding - everything screams quality. You can open the inside pages completely without being afraid of the pages falling out. Yes I tried it, one of the perks of getting a review copy is that you can torture the comic book any which way without feeling the guilt. I would not be surprised to find such a book on the stands in the international market, its production quality is that good.

Click to enlarge

The art for this book has been drawn by Abhishek Malsuni (drew the Witchblade pinup for Top Cow's anniversary issue) and true to his talent, he has done amazing work here. This is probably the best I have seen from Abhishek in his career so far. The double-spread of the city of Vexudus is probably his master piece! The action is dynamic, figures true to form and most of the panels have one thing which is missing in a lot of Indian comics : Background. Most indian artists skimp on this and we only get character interaction in art with minimal detail or single colour backgrounds.

But is all hunky-dory? Perfect? No, of course not. It is early still and there is some scope for improvement. There are times when you might find an odd looking posture/figure - I don't know whether thats due to the alien nature of the characters or whether Abhishek was still trying to fully grasp their design.

But make no mistake about it, the art here is a clear winner and it is what makes this book so good to read through. And this is just the first chapter. As Abhishek grows familiar with the characters I expect the art to only improve from hereon. I would love for him to try out some zany panels like DC books have been doing recently and get away from the safety of square and rectangular panels.

While the art is impressive, it wouldn't have been as impactive if the colours weren't done right. Abhishek's partner-in-crime on colours is Shashank Mishra and he too has knocked it out of the park. You only have to look at the pages where Zane fights with the Blaguants while escaping the storm to understand his impact. The comic sparkles due to his colouring. The only critique that I have for his work is that it probably sparkles a little too much in certain areas where he could have dialled it down a bit. This is especially visible when Tez is interacting with his family. All that rainbow colouration in one room looked a little tacky. But these instances are few and far-between. As with Abhishek, I fully expect Shashank to slowly find his groove.

Now, lets talk about story.

Click to enlarge

First of all, I feel the introductory text could also have been illustrated, or better yet, been mixed/merged with the story being told inside. The best example I can give for such storytelling is a little gem called SAGA coming out from Image Comics, written by Brian K. Vaughan. BKV directly introduces us to the fantasy world and lets us figure out whats happening. There is no hand holding, there is just a story that draws you into itself. I hold Shamik Dasgupta (Daksh, Virulents) in very high regard and expect better from him.

Moving on - this particular chapter basically introduces us to the world of Aveon 9. The way Shamik has played it, its a fairly straight-forward story of a boy on a journey. The environment makes it a little different but you can't shake the feeling that the story is travelling down well-trodden roads. Having said that I must admit that for much of the Indian audience, familiar with their old superheroes and mythology, this is unique content. The entire narrative takes place on a different world with similar yet not-so-similar archetypes. One of the best things about this comic is no doubt meeting the natives of this world and understanding their perspectives. Humans have bought technology to this world and its fun seeing garish aliens playing with very human things like the television (yeah, surprisingly the idiot boxes still exist! :P ) or even a gun.

Princess Lunestra
(Click to enlarge)

The story runs at a breakneck pace, we are introduced to the primary characters and conflicts. By the end of the story, all the characters are in place where you get the feeling that the real story is just beginning.

Discerning audience will also see the obvious nods to the great indian fantasy story "Chandrakanta". The princess' name is Lunestra (“Lunar” is another word for “Chand”, the basis for Chandrakanta), the cities are called Naugra, Chunargara (similar names for cities in Chandrakanta), there is even a character called “Tez” and of course Eiyyar is a very Chandrakanta-ish concept. The back page of the book lets me know that there is a love angle involved with another prince and that they will fight the evils of this world. Again , a central premise of Chandrakanta.

Now, all this isn't necessarily a bad thing, if done right. I am not sure what the future issues will bring nor do I know whether Shamik is going for a "retelling" of Chandrakanta in this alien environment or whether he plans to just give nods to the great indian fantasy, deceiving us into expecting one thing while doing another.

Only future issues will tell.

Click to enlarge

Lastly, I think I should probably mention that Ron Marz (Green Lantern, Witchblade, Artifacts) is the editor of this comic so it's a truly international collaboration and a big part of why the production quality of the book is so high. Unlike other Indian comics, there is is a marked difference in editing and dialogue delivery. I wouldn't be surprised if Ron did some heavy lifting with dialogues himself once or twice as I can see his influence at times.

A Wallpaper for you! Click to get the full-res version!

In summary, this is a high quality comic book, containing superlative art and the kind of story which Indian audiences haven't seen in this medium. The story is just beginning and it would be good for team Rovolt to step out of safety zones and truly try something experimental to captivate the audiences. They have the basis of a great product on their hands. There is so much potential for world building (a.l.a game of thrones) and story expansion to be found here.

The book also features a back up story fleshing out the evolution of the Gnorm Warriors that we encounter within the main story and its very well done, be it art or the story. The last page of this bonus story speaks to the fantastic imagination that sits behind Rovolt's doors. You have to see it to believe it.

My Rating : 8 / 10

------------------------------------------------------------------

Mayank Khurana

A Comic enthusiast (total geek) and reads everything from western to Indian to Manga to Franco-Belgium comics, Owner and Contributor for this site.

Since he lives in India, sourcing foreign comics has always been a problem but he still manages even it means taking part in an infinite civil war of crisis. His dream combines two of his biggest passions, Comics and Travel:-To go on a “comic trek” from one major comic publishing country to another and meet other comic fans out there and bask in all the geeky glory