Writer and artist George Pérez is known for some pretty famous comic book runs in the broad history of comics. He came to fame in the 1970s for his work in the Avengers. In the 1980s he became known for helping to make the Teen Titans the successful DC Comics answer to the popularity of Marvel’s X-Men, and his run at the beginning of the second volume of Wonder Woman helped to revitalize the character that had become too tied to a hoaky past. Despite this success in the early part of his career, Pérez has not been known for a lot of big flashy events since then, rather going on with his career in a mostly consistent if not generally flashy direction. As a fan of his earlier stuff, it was thus interesting for me to hear that he was going to be working on a new series from BOOM! Studios called Sirens, but in a bit of a departure from his regular playground of superheroes, Pérez chose the cosmic setting for his new series.

Pérez is well-regarded by many fans for the depth and complexity with which he writes female characters, treating them less than props and more like equals to their male counterparts. He is also well-known, especially in regards to Wonder Woman for taking a common element of comics and reinvigorating it with fresh ideas without destroying its core. This would seem to be the approach taken with the series Sirens. The eponymous group of heroes is an all-female team of space heroes. While initially diving into this book, it seems as though Pérez might have lost his touch to some degree. Instead of a strong cohesive narrative, there is a lot of jumping around between characters and even between genres. Readers will see some science-fiction, some fantasy and even a little Western in the opening pages and might wonder where this is all headed. It would seem though that one of the main problems with reinvigorating the genre of outer space heroines is more difficult now than it was twenty years ago, especially with the introduction of many stronger characters into the field of sci-fi.

While the reader might be left wondering what is going on for the first part of the story in issue #1, the confusion does end up being worth the effort. Although it takes a fairly roundabout way to get there, the story does get on track towards the end, coalescing as it does into the team, though in a less conventional way than some origin stories. In the end this ends up being a pretty satisfying read, as Pérez goes from nothing to a compelling story with compelling characters in little time. Although there is still a little bit of confusion by the end of the first issue, the degree to which Pérez has pulled it together is evidence enough that the story should be clear and concise enough by the following issue.

Story and Art:  George Perez
Story: 7.8 Art: 8.0 Overall: 7.8 Recommendation: Buy

BOOM! Studios provided Graphic Policy with a FREE copy for review.