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Edward Scissorhands #1

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    Mark Tolch
    Senior Member

  • Edward Scissorhands #1




    Released By: IDW Publishing
    Release Date: October 29, 2014

    The Story:

    Take a moment and ponder this...Tim Burton's film Edward Scissorhands is almost a quarter century old. That's right, Johnny Depp's take on the gothic hedge artist rolled out into movie theaters 24 years ago....and truth be told, I don't remember it being that, er, memorable. If anything, what stands out for me is a frail-looking but still enchanting Vincent Price in his last big-screen appearance, and former geek star Anthony Michael Hall all grown up and kicking ass. Edward, on the other hand, came off much the same as his more recent Twilight namesake, the fantasy of a young girl looking for an understanding boyfriend with a dark side.



    I was a little surprised when I heard that there was a comic book. Do we need a retelling of this mediocre storyline that had the ladies swooning and their movie dates rolling their eyes? Probably not. Thankfully, writer Kate Leth has decided to introduce these books as a sequel to the original film, which leaves all kinds of possibilities open to make the character, er, better. While the film version of Edward left us with Kim (Winona Ryder) telling her granddaughter Meg about her experiences with Mr. Scissorhands, the comic introduces a teenaged Meg reminiscing about the legend, the legend of a killer that nobody around town will discuss; especially Meg's mother.



    But as we come to learn, Edward really does exist (of course), still living in the castle (that still gets newspaper delivery), and is so broken up about Kim's posted obituary that he stops his ice sculpture carving, and therefore the snow to the town below. Turning his attentions elsewhere, Edward explores the rest of the castle and discovers one of his creator's other inventions, a boy with sharp jagged knife fingers....really, what in the hell was the MATTER with that guy?....although the blueprints indicate that there is "Something Missing". Unfortunately, that something seems to be a couple of cards from a full deck, and "Eli"'s disturbance leads to some disturbing behaviour.



    Meanwhile, down the hill, Meg attempts to keep her Grandmother's memory and stories alive, but is met with all manner of resistance from her mother, who is convinced that Kim was crazy. Further tarnishing Meg's world is her mother's insistence that Edward was a murderer, and that the town is better off without him around. But Meg refuses to be stopped, searching for pieces of the puzzle that will prove her late Grandmother's sanity.



    It's hard to say how effective a run of comics will be after completion of the first issue, despite the number of first issues of series' that pull the reader in completely in the first few pages. Leth has done a decent job here without doing much more than scratching the surface, but the combination of a somewhat lacking storyline and Drew Rausch's artwork don't provide a very convincing argument. That's not to say that Rausch's artwork isn't good, per se...it is...it just comes across as lighthearted and sunny, even in the dark castle scenes. Remember that Beetlejuice cartoon, speaking of Burton? That's what Edward Scissorhands #1 reads like...a take on potential dark subject matter presented for children. And who knows, that could be the intent, but the mix of an apparent killer robot and a cartoon-like Scissorhands, mixed with a Fairly Oddparents-like set of human beings causes a bit of mental conflict.

    The Final Word:

    Book #1, not much to write about here. Leth and co. are really going to need to ramp it up for Book #2 if they want to keep interest.









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