3 out of 5

I’m sure this was considered when constructing Buzzkill, but I have a basic recommendation for how this could have been structured more effectively: Expand the issue count to match the AA steps.  As is, the chapters are named after select steps, but my main problem with the series is how lacking in impact the story is due to the compressed, 4-issue pacing, which in turn causes a bunch of tonal inconsistency.  On the flipside, the assumed criticism, that this is an Idea book and nothing more, is absolutely not fulfilled.  I recall when Buzzkill came out, and reading the synopsis – a hero gets his powers from alcohol – immediately set off those Concept Over Content alarms for me, and a flip-through of the first issue, which has our lead character going the ol’ exposition route at an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting – i.e. here’s an easy way to set up the story – and then ending with various villains promising to do the currently-sober (and thus depowered) hero harm – did not distill those alarms; it seems to satisfy my assumption that the book would be using its Idea to tell a normal comic book story.

Reading Cates’ later Paybacks had me curious, though.  Here was another series with an idea, but it used its quirk and humor to navigate toward a surprisingly deep story.  Which made me curious to come back to Buzzkill.

And I understand my initial hesitance.  The compression of the story is what leads to surface flip-throughs seeming off: while there’s an equal amount of depth to Buzzkill and Paybacks, Buzz has a lot more seriousness to work through and prop up against its more humorous elements, and the transitions really aren’t there.  To read it is to see an understanding of the struggle of addiction, and how that interestingly marries to the world of over-powered heroes, but that the events are backloaded with those AA explanations and thus only take place over a couple of days undermines the impact of the whole thing, including the introductions of other characters and also cuts off the legs of the ending – which is almost confusingly oblique, told in a way like we’re missing something that reading several other reviews leads me to believe we’re (a.k.a. I’m) not, but perhaps the impact for most is how heavy things get for what starts out as a quippy, snarky book.

I also have to step out and snip on Geoff Shaw’s art, which, while incredibly expressive, looks somewhat unformed, like early Duncan Fegredo.  I’m not the one to say that one style is better than another, of course, but I’ve noticed most “sketchy” artists end up tightening up their use of lines later in the careers, perhaps learning how to do just as much with fewer lines, and it ends up looking much more confident and like “them.”  I used to love Fegredo’s early art, but the years have me appreciating his middle era (pre-Mignola mimicry) instead.  Artists of this type still have a very limber and loose line, just, again, it ends up feeling less like a sketch and more like a finished piece.  Shaw would show evolvement of this nature between this and Paybacks, so I don’t think I’m too out of line.

As a plus, Buzzkill is not the tossed-off idea it may be assumed to be.  But for all the works Cates and Reznicek put into making sure the characters and world and story actually had grounding, funneling events down to four issues makes it hard to sync up the different pieces and tones.