Review: New Romancer #5
Five issues in, and writer Peter Milligan and artist Brett Parson’s New Romancer continues to be a hot mess of a comic. Milligan can’t seem to develop any one of the four or five storylines at any kind of emotionally satisfying level, but he does land a few good moments along the way. There is the relationship between Lexy and her dad as he begins to regret tampering with her brain as Mata Hari holds him half naked to a cactus, and Lexy also gets to geek out about her all-time idol Ada Lovelace, the first computer programmer and the daughter of Lord Byron, as she meets in some weird cyber zone. Casanova also continues to be irritatingly entertaining as a villain even though his scenes are stiffed in favor of the one note corporate head of Lexy’s dad’s old company, Incubator, Angel Beaufort. I guess she represents cold logic and profit compared to the art and romance of Lexy, but it isn’t clear if they’re foils or not.
Parson’s art and Brian Miller’s color continue to be standout parts of New Romancer, and it’s the same in issue 5 with Miller having fun showing the effects of Casanova’s love drug on Lexy. She has incredibly creepy green tinged fantasies and luckily it’s over after a page thanks to Lord Byron draining his power vampire style. And from slime green, Miller can transition to the orange desert sunset where Lexy’s dad is being held hostage by Mata Hari or to the softer green of cyberspace. New Romancer is a colorful book, and Parson’s art is filled with lively and sometimes funny facial expressions like Casanova messing around with his one eye.
And the book finally gets a little sexy as Lexy seduces Lord Byron with his own poetry and goes from being in a daze to all over him. Unfortunately, this is in service of yet another plot point, and by the end of the issue, Lexy is back to pondering how the real man Byron is different from the one she idealized. This is nice and all, but they don’t really discuss it as the end of the issue turns into the climax of Hackers if you replaced mid-1990s cyberpunk fashion with Aladdin Sane David Bowie and actual New Romantics fashion. (Think Duran Duran, Spandau Ballet etc)
Unfortunately, the momentum built through the flirting between Lexy and Lord Byron and her strained relationship with her father all but comes to a halt by the end of New Romancer #5 as the plot gets caught up in a wave of double crosses, hostage situations, and technobabble. And the cliffhanger is yet another showdown between Lexy and Casanova, but this is one will maybe be better because the first arc of the comic is ending. New Romancer was a comic with some fun ideas, like combining Romantic poetry and online dating, performing a feminist critique on Lord Byron from his number one fan, and even the inclusion of Casanova as a villain, but it’s really run out of steam towards the end of its first arc even if Parson and Miller’s art is still fun to look at.
Story: Peter Milligan Art: Brett Parson Colors: Brian Miller
Story: 5.0 Art: 7 Overall: 5 Recommendation: Pass
The sides have been set, and the war for love rages on in New Romancer #4 as Lexy comes to terms with her genetically engineered past while dodging the forces of both Casanova and Mata Hari, who wants to resurrect her lover Marcel’s mind in Lord Byron’s mind. And the head of Incubator, who can’t feel emotions, wants to use Lord Byron’s grasp over human emotional topology to perfect artificial intelligence. Peter Milligan’s plot is pretty ambitious, and he is spinning a lot of plates, but to his credit, doesn’t drop them all thanks to his handle on Lord Byron’s occasionally blunt, occasionally poetic voice and by continuing to make Lexy the emotional crux of the story. However, sometimes she gets drowned out by cuts to storylines, including a nearly creepy flashback where it’s insinuated that her dad genetically engineered The story rushes so quickly that is hard to see exactly where they stand though.
New Romancer #3 picks up the pace and the humor as our heroine, the Romantic poetry loving computer programmer, Lexy and Lord Byron dodge robots named after classical mythological allusions from his poems, and fight Casanova, who is pretty much a sex vampire. Byron also tries to get acclimated to 21st century women, and Lexy’s little lessons in feminism for him are some of the comic’s highlights.
With bright cartoonish art and a wicked wit, New Romancer #2 opens up with the worst date of all worst dates as bored socialite Felicity is set up by the New Romancer algorithm with Dwayne, who is into necrophilia. But for some reason she wants a second date because it’s more exciting than her usual rich guy wannabe boyfriends. And the pressure is on our protagonist Lexy, who must find Lord Byron (More precisely the A.I. downloaded into a body that looks just like Lord Byron), true love, and have her algorithm work all my Valentine’s Day. Plus Casanova is after Lord Byron for some reason having to do with his abilities and experiences as a lover that writer Peter Milligan doesn’t dig into quite yet. He’s an amusing villain though.
Wednesdays are new comic book day! Each week hundreds of comics are released, and that can be pretty daunting to go over and choose what to buy. That’s where we come in!
