Caliber First Canon of Justice #1

Writer Sam Sarkar
Art Garrie Gastonny
Colorists: Imaginary Friends Studios
Letterer: Annie Parkhouse
Radical Comics, Due in stores April 30, 2008
(A PDF preview was provided by the publisher for review purposes.)

Clarity. Its an important detail when you launch a new comic, not to mention a comic line, to have. There are tons of new comics that come out every week after all. So if you get a reader to read your first issue you better leave that reader with a clear vision of what your series is about. Something that unfortunately Caliber fails at completely.

I've read it three times now, and still am scratching my head to try and figure out what is going on. There is apparently some Native American God who wishes to enforce the law. The law in this case being "white man's law" as being done during the time in history when Native American were being moved to reservations.

It does this through a shaman who is half white and half Native American. Who has visions that lead him to find a magic gun, that will only work for one man who will protect and enforce the law for everyone.

Unfortunately it seems that the shaman gets bad reception on his visions, as he doesn't have much luck finding the right person despite seeing his face.

Its a shame that this series writing isn't a bit clearer, as the art is really lovely. There is lush detail, good panel structure and just an open feel to the art.

Yet the story just lacks that sense of clarity. I don't expect to know where a story is going after one issue, yet I do expect to have a clear idea what type of story I read. This might get clearer with future issues, but I wonder with comic prices and the amount of diversity out there who comes back for the second issue to see if it does.