Villordsutch reviews IDW’s Triple Helix #1…
“Where TRIO stopped, HELIX starts! There’s a MONSTER on the loose in the City… but will the mysterious CHANGELINGS of TRIPLE HELIX destroy it before they realize it’s really an old FRIEND?”
There is a moment everybody comes across in their lives when you realise you’ve not been paying attention for the past two minutes and due to this you haven’t got one idea about what is going on. This generally happens in the important moments of your life like meetings/training/classrooms/conversations with your partner, and you are suddenly struck with the feeling of confusion as you look around for any clue to save you, hoping it will give you an inkling of the conversation so you can catch up; meanwhile you’re also hoping nobody will ask you a question. That is exactly how I felt reading Triple Helix – lost, confused and looking for someone to tell me what is going on.
I can understand what John Byrne has done in #1 of Triple Helix, for what we have here is an action packed introduction to the main characters within this universe. Rather than have an unfolding storyline gently setting up the players, both good and dad, we have an all mighty scrap where our characters are highlighted throughout with their names in big and bold print along with a show of their powers. A blast of excitement is always more than welcome and to give the first issue a superhero battle is a move that should make everybody happy. Except here it doesn’t, which is a shame really.
Reading this issue I had to return to the cover to check that this really was #1 as the feeling that I had missed something was bothering me. Here I was in the midst of a battle, having no clue who were these people or what had gone on before. Due to this I had little to no feeling at all towards conflicts, deaths and problems. I asked myself ‘Have I missed a One-Shot?’; I had to take to the Web (which I shouldn’t have to do for a #1) for more information and it appears that this follows on from a series called Trio, with Triple Helix expanding the universe; this however didn’t increase my adoration for this issue, nor my understanding.
A saving grace for this comic is John Byrne’s art. It looks amazing; I felt that I was looking at a reprint from a mid-80’s superhero comic with jump suits with odd white fins of material protruding from it, all wearing red ‘bug-eye’ shades. It reminds me of comics before The Killing Joke and The Dark Knight Returns arrived and brought a growing seam of maturity to the comic world both in story and in appearance.
It’s a shame that the story in Triple Helix #1 relies on you already having a bit of knowledge about what has passed before. If not, I wouldn’t have felt like I’d missed something, but I did and so for me this comic wasn’t enjoyable – even with art which sings of comics from days gone by.
Villordsutch is married with kids and pets. He looks like a tubby Viking and enjoys science fiction. Follow him on Twitter.
Originally published October 8, 2013. Updated April 11, 2018.
