Jack Kirby‘s Klarion the Witch Boy makes his New 52 debut and stands for the forces on chaos in this brand new ongoing series. Written by Ann Nocenti, with art by Trevor McCarthy, Klarion is a supernatural trickster who is not out to save the world or rescue anyone.

Klarion isn’t naturally heroic. He’s a mischievous, impulsive teenager. And what happens when Klarion arrives in New York City? The underground occult community stands up and takes notice!

Klarion #1 is interesting. McCarthy’s art is amazing. The perspective, and twisting of it is fantastic to look at. Panels are thrown to the side with various attributes of the story causing the narrative to flow and leading you through the story. Some of the design is very out of the box and very cool. But, that interesting design also added to my confusion.

As far as story, I had no idea what was going on. There’s Klarion, and he escaped from somewhere, and winds up in New York City. Then there’s a house, some bad guys, his friend turns. It’s all too much, too little explained, and mixed with the eye bending art feels like a whirlwind mess. It didn’t help that I have no idea who the character is, but I felt coming out the end of the comic, I knew little more than I did going in and not enough to make me interested in coming back for more.

Stay for the visuals, skip the story. Maybe as a trade the first arc of the series will be better, but as a first issue, I can’t say I’d stick around the find out.

Story: Ann Nocenti Art: Trevor McCarthy
Story: 6 Art: 8.25 Overall: 6.25 Recommendation: Pass

DC Comics provided Graphic Policy with a FREE copy for review