Review- TWILIGHT

TWILIGHT (DC, First Printing, 2014; Softcover)

Collects Twilight #1-3 (cover dates December, 1990- February, 1991)

Writer: Howard Chaykin

Artist: Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez

Colorist: Steve Oliff

There are two ways that I read comic books. First, I read it as entertainment in the here and now. Second, I try to keep in mind the era which the material was originally published. Context can make me forgive certain things. Watchmen kicked open the floodgates for Mature Readers comics. While there were certainly things going on in the 1970s and early 1980s it was the critical mass and popularity of that title that made it really happen. DC ushered in the “Prestige format” for comics, 48 page squarebound comics with cardstock covers printed on glossy coated stock paper and utilizing more sophisticated colors than those found in the pulp paper comics of the day. These comics did not adhere to the Comics Code Authority, thus allowing creators to indulge in every whim that had been denied to them up until that point in time. Cursing, excessive violence, sexual situations...nothing was off the table so long as it was artfully done. Again, context of the era. What was once cutting edge and creative becomes strip-mined and pedestrian. This might have been mind blowing 25 years ago but it is a chore to read in 2015.

Twilight utilizes some lesser known DC heroes and launches them into a separate continuity, and this automatically relegates it to a Watchmen knockoff in my mind. This is super dense, text heavy reading. While I am not a fan of decompression, this is overwritten and overwrought and was as much fun to read as chewing chalk. This is passed off as intelligent writing but it is more of a verbal jerkoff. Chaykin tries to be clever but comes off as labored and too self aware to pull it off. He muses on immortality, religion, godhood, sexuality, and human nature, all in one long, droning puke. If not for Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez's artwork this book would have been a completely lost cause. This book has caused me to once again reevaluate which books I purchase and why. I simply don't hate my money this much.

Junk Food For Thought rating: 1 out of 5.

The OCD zone

Linework and Color restoration: I am fairly certain that these are scans of the original comics, as there several spots where line bleed is present. The airbrush coloring of the day would be extremely difficult to replicate, so this might have been the safest route.

Paper stock: Glossy coated stock.

Binding: Perfect bound trade paperback.

Cardstock cover notes: Laminated cardstock cover.