Looking For a Good Book

This one almost had me.

Little Red Riding Hood…er…Britney Waters, aka Agent Red, works for the government on special assignment with the Realm Knights.  They managed to get their hands on a precious red stone (referred to as the Cyclops Eye), the properties of which they don’t fully understand, other than that it potentially holds special powers.  As Red heads off for some training excercises, the government facility comes under attack by a horde of … creatures … one of which has the ability to hop from body to body (refering to them as ‘meat suits’).  Red is charged with protecting the Cyclops Eye until back-up arrives.  Back-up first comes by way of Red’s friend Robyn Hood, and later by more military might.  But when Red decides to take the action right at the horde, she gets more than she bargained for.

Oh…and Red is a werewolf who has the ability to control her changing and fierceness, though it takes much effort.

The first two books of the five comic book issues collected here were captivating.  I was actually quite involved in this idea of Red Hood working for the government as a bit of a loose cannon agent.  Her fierceness.  Her abilities.  Working for the government?  Yeah…this seemed really interesting.

And then Red went off to fight the horde and she battled ogres and a were-panther, and things just went downhill for me.  This delved in to a monster-vs-monster battle with expendable ‘redshirt’ military men to act as casualty-fodder.  Once it became a monster-fest, I completely lost interest.  Even Red Hood was no longer interesting.  Ivory (the were-panther) spent what felt like an entire issue trying to bring out the werewolf in Red.  Who cares?

Even the potentially interesting ‘bad’ character who has the ability to hop from body to body was easily captured, then easily dispatched (gone, but not forgotten).  It simply became one battle where the big bad guy threatens to kill Red quickly or slowly, her choice, after another.  Let’s try for something a little more original, shall we?

I can see where this story is going, and I’m not sure how keen I am on finishing it.  There was so much potential here for something unique.

The artwork.  Sigh.  It’s the typical overly-exagerated female body art.  It’s not quite as provocative as some I’ve seen lately, but it is totally unrealistic.  These women make Barbie™ look flat-chested.  Oddly enough, it didn’t bother me at all when I felt that there was a story to be drawn in to, but once the story seemed to fall away, the female bodies seemed to get more pronounced.

Clearly this ‘style’ (if I may use the term loosely) must sell books or it wouldn’t continue.  But as I’ve matured, so has what I look for in a book … which is story.

Looking for a good book?  Code Red Volume 1: Age of Darkness has a lot of potential but falls back on some traditional ‘dark’ monster themes instead.

Grimm Fairy Tales Present Code Red Volume 1: Age of Darkness

authors: Pat Shand

artists: Ricardo Osnaya, Vincenzo Riccardi, Joel Ojeda

publisher: Zenescope Entertainment

ISBN: 1939683580

paperback, 160 pages