2 out of 5

Ben and Liam are both credited for ‘Story,’ Liam for ‘Script.  This was the other ‘Madefire’ title Titan published alongside Captain Stone, which I would later read were adapted from motion comics.  In Cap Stone, this explained the scattered design sense, though it didn’t necessarily make it a better experience.  ‘Mono’ works better in a comic format, since it primarily sticks to one art style but at least maintains traditional paneling.  It also has a more accessible premise, though Liam Sharp again stumbles at framing it in a way to actually give it momentum.  As such, while this book is overall more appealing than Cap, they both provide a similar experience: interesting enough to encourage a reader to give it another issue, but then failing to develop or shape up in any way to award continuing beyond that point.

Mono is a resurrection of a forgotten pulp character – an adventure-type secret agent ape-man with a tail.  The series will presumably follow some flashbacks from Mono’s life that correspond with journal entries that are narrated to us at issue’s start… unfortunately, despite some wonderfully moody, sketchy art from Wolstenholme (it’s almost too sketchy to be a fully fledged style – similar to Duncan Fegredo’s very early work vs. his more polished current method), the journal entries never congeal into anything that feels like a story, more just flashes of moments.  When it says ‘to be continued’ at the end of the issue – what’s being continued?  Is there a story going on?  But, again, Mono at least feels more focused than Cap Stone – we know who the hero is, and that we will be following him through something or other – and furthermore has the benefit of excerpts from the real pulps in the back (if we’re believing the background on Mono, which we might as well), which gives the character a proper sense of history.

The Madefire books are interesting experiments but ultimately, thus far, failures.  But not because the motion comic doesn’t translate – moreso because the stories that are being translated never get off the ground.