Fringe
Issue: #1
Writers: Zack Whedon, Julia Cho, Alex Katsnelson, Danielle Dispaltro
Artists: Tom Mandrake, Simon Coleby
32 pp. Wildstorm. $2.99
Reviewed by Paul Stotts
Fringe is the highly anticipated television series from J.J. Abrams, the creator of Alias and Lost as well as the director of Mission: Impossible III and the upcoming Star Trek movie. In a unique tie-in, Wildstorm is producing a six issue limited comic series for the show. The purpose of the comics will be to provide additional storylines for many of the characters in the show, as well as creating supplemental stories in the Fringe universe. So viewers of Fringe who also read the comic book are supposed to come away knowing more answers about the Fringe universe, since the comic will provide an additional level of characterization that one won't get from the television show.
This raises the question on whether the Fringe comic book can stand on its own merits? Or is this something that only viewers of the television series will appreciate? If the comic is marketing for the television series (which I think it is), then it is quite effective, since it made me want to watch the show after reading the first issue. (Which is saying something, since I rarely watch television.) The first issue has two separate stories, and both of them are vastly intriguing, even though they present more questions than answers. Unfortunately, the stories are also very short at 11 pages each, amounting to not much more than a tease. Think of Fringe #1 as the equivalent of a comic commercial promoting the series.
The first story, "Like Minds", features a brilliant young scientist named Walter Bishop, who's a professor at Harvard in 1974. Bishop is conducting research into the possibility that humans could interface with each other much like computers and transfer data through non-verbal communication. Bishop's ideas are met with skepticism and outright ridicule in the academic scientific community, most of his peers believing that Bishop is indulging in pure science fiction. Only an ambitious and brilliant student at Harvard, William Bell, finds Bishop's ideas plausible. This leads Bell to ask Bishop if he could help with his research. But during the course of one of the experiments, something happens to Bell which brings on an unexpected change.
In the other story "The Prisoner", Frank wakes up one day only to find he's in a body he doesn't recognize. Even worse, this new body, Jones, is a racist skinhead who happens to be serving time in prison. Utterly bewildered (and who wouldn't be), Frank decides to call his fiancee Sarah to explain what has happened to him. But what Sarah tells Frank is just as shocking and disturbing: he can't be Frank, since Frank is sitting next to her. Could Frank's existential dilemma be related in any way to Bishop's ideas on human transference?
Zack Whedon and Julia Cho handle the writing chores for the first story, while Alex Katsnelson and Danielle Dispaltro script the tale of poor lost Frank. Both teams do stellar work here, creating intriguing storylines in relatively few pages. Of the two, the Whedon and Cho story works better in this format. "The Prisoner" storyline feels abbreviated and because of this is slightly confusing (Something just feels missing in the story). I would have preferred to see each of the stories get a full 22 page treatment, which would have allowed the writers to fill in a few more details. So don't expect a whole lot of character development or action to unfold here.
The artwork is definitely suitable in both stories. Tom Mandrake handles the art chores for the "Like Minds", while Simon Coleby draws "The Prisoner". In particular, Coleby does a bang-up job on "The Prisoner" delivering a few killer panels. Mandrake's art is much more generic, and has a slight cartoonish quality to it that seemed out of place. While I wouldn't consider the art on "Like Minds" bad, it really didn't appeal to me either.
Fringe #1 is an intriguing start to a new series, but its ultimate success or failure will depend on what it and the television series bring to each other. Right now, it is hard to get a gauge on this since both the comic and television series are in their infancy, so only time will tell. Fans of the show, though, will definitely want to check this out.
Final Grade: 76 out of 100
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