3 out of 5

When I got to the last page of Translucid’s issue #6, I was wondering if I’d missed something.  I couldn’t see how, as the series unfolds in a very linear fashion, but all the same – maybe there was some subtext I had missed.  So I went to the reviews.  I wasn’t surprised to see that they were all glowingly positive, but I was a little… skeptical… that they all took this stance that ‘Translucid’ was some in-depth dissection of the hero and villain tropes, with more than one reference to ‘Killing Joke.’  Is that the point of ‘Translucid?’  Yeah, for sure.  We’re studying a hero – The Navigator – as his main adversary – Horse – drugs him and takes him on a vision quest to show him the fine line between good and bad.  Sanchez and Echert absolutely do some excellent world-building without spelling it all out, a la the greats of that technique – Moore and Morrison – but I was at a loss at the series’ conclusion because of how little digging we’d actually done.  It’s all delivered right on the page; nothing to think about.  And so many of the oblique voice-overs (supplied by Horse) – “Heroes can’t turn back time.  Only villains can do that.” – don’t not make sense in the context of the story, but that’s the only way they make sense. They’re rather superficial statements, applied only after plotting everything out and thinking about something relevant for the villain to say.  Meaning it essentially amounts to narrative filler.  So while our writers thankfully aren’t mired in dramaturgy, the excessive subtitling – and I don’t think this was some meta nod to monologuing – ends up over-simplifying what could’ve been a more effecting story with more interpretive decisions left up to the reader.

I did enjoy Translucid, though.  The sketchy but imaginative art of Daniel Bayliss – with the heavy inking style of early Becky Cloonan tempered with a more solid, realistic take on the human form  – greatly assists the writing in setting up the world of the Navigator and Horse for us as recognizable and relatable but acceptable as including comic book heroes and villains, and Adam Metcalfe’s colors further enhance the ability for the story to slip between drug-induced reality and reality, blending in hallucinogenic pinks and greens before going all out for surreal sequences.  One must acknowledge, though, that the main characters’ striking designs, which are highlights of the book, are by a different creator, Dan Duncan.  Also in the art mix are some wonderful covers by Jeff Stokely, which perfectly marry the story themes and artistic elements… somewhat again highlighting that the ‘point’ of our story is apparent pretty much from the second cover on with the Navigator / Horse appearing as two halves of one warring figure.  I’ve criticized the story for not actually doing much with its story beyond telling it to us (and over-telling it to us), but one of the main reasons it remains a readable set of books is because it’s a united front: art and writing are in it together.

There’s nothing wrong with Translucid on the surface.  Sentences are well-constructed, dialogue is believable, and the characters feel fully formed.  The book looks great from every angle.  It’s just lacking beneath the surface.  Not every story has to twist the knife, but the attempt at layering the narrative forces one to consider deeper themes; themes which, unfortunately, Translucid doesn’t explore.