George Pérez’s Sirens (graphic novel review).
With George Pérez’s death in May, I thought I ought to look at some of his non-Marvel/DC and came across ‘Sirens’. Originally released as a 6 issue mini-series in 2014, it is collected here with a section of pencils and covers at the back. It is a bit misleading that chapter 3 was written and drawn by Chan Everest until you realise later on that this is one of the Sirens themselves as in one reality she is a comicbook creator. Pérez changes his style to being somewhat more cartoony in that issue.
Therein also lies a problem. With the opening chapter, you would be hard pushed to name any of the Sirens team. From the next chapter on, you can’t go anywhere without them being named, usually by their forenames. It isn’t until the end of the sixth chapter that we have a rollcall showing their full names and codenames. With so many characters, this isn’t really a good way for the reader to establish links to so many characters.
If you do buy this graphic novel, ensure you give yourself about 90 minutes to read in one sitting or you might lose the thread and hope none of this comes over as too spoiler. The Sirens are about six heroines dispersed across history and the machinations to return them to the present and sort out a bad villainous and other problems. Most of these warrior ladies are pretty frisky where they are left. The exception is, as I noted above, is Chan Everest who just draws and writes. I think I’ve said enough on the plot without too many spoilers.
With my critical eye, there is always a problem that all writer-artists can have and that is the balance between illustration and dialogue to get the story across. Pérez the artist is over-whelmed by Pérez the writer. There are few double page spreads and although he doesn’t go full heads on panels, there are enough close-ups for me to think he realised that. I’m still mulling over the Drago alien species that gets a magnificent introduction and then fade into the background.
There is a feeling that a lot of ideas were thrown in and then seeing what held together most to lead the way. The basic plot holds up but the characters themselves are more interchangeable, differentiated by their appearance and abilities more than personalities. Around chapter four, they are marked off as elementals but not really explored beyond that announcement. Yes, there is an argument that team members should be treated equally but it can work against the story as to whom you might want to root for and who has the most interesting back story when stuck in the past.
Agony is the most violent but is more one-note because of it. Hence, you should see my problem with this graphic novel.
A saving grace is none of the characters are anything like Pérez’s work on the Titans. Pérez is great at getting many characters onto a page but it doesn’t always make it a requirement or need. There is a story here and I do have to wonder who he had as a sounding-off board to explore his plot before getting down to writing. Be prepared for a roller-coaster if you read this book.
GF Willmetts
June 2022
(pub: BOOM Studio, 2018. 192 page graphic novel hardback. Price: I pulled my copy for about £15.00 (UK). ISBN: 978-1-60886-859-9)
check out website: www.BOOM-STUDIOS.com
Dear SF Crowsnest.
Just a heads-up, you’ve got a fault on your page here….
https://www.sfcrowsnest.info/george-perezs-sirens-graphic-novel-review/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email
It’s saying….
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Just thought you ought to know about it.
Yours respectfully
Chris
Thanks for that, Chris, there’s a bug in our design template not working with the latest version of WP. We’ve notified the design company behind the template, and hopefully they can fix it in the near future.