Southern Cross #1 Discussion

[Ragdoll]

I just read this and loved it. The setting is great and really pulls you in. I thought it would feel too similar to The Fuse (mostly from the setting of one ship in space that they never leave) but it was totally different.

[buffalorock]

Yeah I picked this one up as well and enjoyed it. It didn't draw me in the same way Descender #1 did but it was still interesting and I'll be getting #2 for sure.

[Detox]

I just read this and loved it. The setting is great and really pulls you in. I thought it would feel too similar to The Fuse (mostly from the setting of one ship in space that they never leave) but it was totally different.

Yea totally different vibe from The Fuse, but also very well done imo. This one might be a keeper.

[El Sombrero]

I was really disappointed by this. Not so much because the book was bad at all, but because I had such high expectations for this and it seemed like an easy favorite for me given how much I liked the teasers for the book and what the creators were saying. In the end I thought it was pretty dull and did not really hit on what the creators said they set out to do.

I thought there were a few inconsistencies in the book. I liked how Alex was kind of an unlikeable lead. I really dislike "perfect" protagonists where they have no flaws, or their only "flaws" are things that in essence make them more likable or relatable. Alex had some serious social problems and was kind of a bitch, which I liked. I thought she had a great visual design, kind of punk influenced without looking too cliche. But then in a few interactions she seemed to drop her bitch facade for no real reason, or turn it up even more, and it just felt kind of inconsistent to me. Maybe that was intentional, like she is trying too hard to be anti-social and doesn't really know how to act in groups anymore?

I liked most of the art (I thought the coloring was especially fantastic on a bunch of pages) but the storytelling and style was kind of inconsistent there too. The panel layouts were kind of all over the place and there were a couple transitions where the book got really psychedelic out of nowhere that felt overly abrupt and very much took me out of the setting. I think in a book like this, where they obviously want to really set up the atmosphere of the ship, there needs to be much more consistency in the art before you start to go crazy or do unpredictable things.

The creators spent a lot of time talking about how this would be a tense, psychological horror book, but it didn't deliver in that respect at all for me. I didn't think it was scary or particularly tense at all. The ghost elements weren't built up to, did not come off as scary...I just did not think they were executed effectively at all. The captain's reveal of that yellow room with the energy source was another "WTF" thing that just felt out of the blue in an unimpressive way to me.

Finally, I thought the supporting characters were all unmemorable or uninteresting. Alex was the only character that I found remotely interesting.

This is the second book I've read written by Cloonan, the other one being Gotham Academy, and her writing isn't really doing much for me. I think Gotham Academy is very overrated...Kerschl's art is sublime but the writing is really boring. None of the characters do it for me there (Maps is cute but in a very blatant way that I think is kind of cheap and cliche), I don't think the scenes that are meant to be scary in that book are scary at all, and I generally find the pacing and plotlines very dull. Same problems here.

I might be back for issue #2 since I had such high expectations but TLDR, I was just disappointed in general here. The creators said that The Shining, Alien, and Blade Runner were huge influences, and those are probably all in my top 10 favorite movies. I didn't think there was any way I wouldn't like this.

[wwise03]

I was really disappointed by this. Not so much because the book was bad at all, but because I had such high expectations for this and it seemed like an easy favorite for me given how much I liked the teasers for the book and what the creators were saying. In the end I thought it was pretty dull and did not really hit on what the creators said they set out to do.

I thought there were a few inconsistencies in the book. I liked how Alex was kind of an unlikeable lead. I really dislike "perfect" protagonists where they have no flaws, or their only "flaws" are things that in essence make them more likable or relatable. Alex had some serious social problems and was kind of a bitch, which I liked. I thought she had a great visual design, kind of punk influenced without looking too cliche. But then in a few interactions she seemed to drop her bitch facade for no real reason, or turn it up even more, and it just felt kind of inconsistent to me. Maybe that was intentional, like she is trying too hard to be anti-social and doesn't really know how to act in groups anymore?

I liked most of the art (I thought the coloring was especially fantastic on a bunch of pages) but the storytelling and style was kind of inconsistent there too. The panel layouts were kind of all over the place and there were a couple transitions where the book got really psychedelic out of nowhere that felt overly abrupt and very much took me out of the setting. I think in a book like this, where they obviously want to really set up the atmosphere of the ship, there needs to be much more consistency in the art before you start to go crazy or do unpredictable things.

The creators spent a lot of time talking about how this would be a tense, psychological horror book, but it didn't deliver in that respect at all for me. I didn't think it was scary or particularly tense at all. The ghost elements weren't built up to, did not come off as scary...I just did not think they were executed effectively at all. The captain's reveal of that yellow room with the energy source was another "WTF" thing that just felt out of the blue in an unimpressive way to me.

Finally, I thought the supporting characters were all unmemorable or uninteresting. Alex was the only character that I found remotely interesting.

This is the second book I've read written by Cloonan, the other one being Gotham Academy, and her writing isn't really doing much for me. I think Gotham Academy is very overrated...Kerschl's art is sublime but the writing is really boring. None of the characters do it for me there (Maps is cute but in a very blatant way that I think is kind of cheap and cliche), I don't think the scenes that are meant to be scary in that book are scary at all, and I generally find the pacing and plotlines very dull. Same problems here.

I might be back for issue #2 since I had such high expectations but TLDR, I was just disappointed in general here. The creators said that The Shining, Alien, and Blade Runner were huge influences, and those are probably all in my top 10 favorite movies. I didn't think there was any way I wouldn't like this.

I actually liked it more than Descender (which I really liked). To each their own. The good thing about image is that there are so many fantastic books to choose from.

[Cydonia-]

I really liked it. How long is it supposed to go for?

[Noviere]

I like the premise of Southern Cross more than I liked the first issue. I just feel like this issue didn't do a whole lot of anything, and the art falls a bit flat for me. I'll stick around for a few more issues to see where it's going though!

[Joe Acro]

I get a very "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" vibe from this book. The Southern Cross itself is designed (at least inside) like a submarine. The captain of the ship seems to have that same air as Captain Nemo--that mix of resolve, solitude, contemplation, and mystery.While I'm talking about him, I find the captain's comment about the drive a bit confusing. If it had just been installed, how can him coming down there to listen to it be a regular occurrence?

I also think that, if the ending is implying what it seems to be implying, that I'm not going to care for this series. I'm just a little tired of something strange and useful turning out to be made from people.

[Sans Simian]

Up and down issue for me. It might just be indicative of a number one issue having to set up the whole world at the expense of finesse in the plot areas. I'll try issue two out and then decide from there. Although with Divinity and Descenders out right now it's hard to justify another cosmic book on my budget right now, so...

[LooneyKoala]

I thought this was awesome!! Looking forward to the next issue!!

It seems it can't avoid comparisons with Descender... They're both brand new sci-fi series by Image after all... And personally I enjoyed this a lot more.

[HsssH]

I like the premise of Southern Cross more than I liked the first issue. I just feel like this issue didn't do a whole lot of anything, and the art falls a bit flat for me. I'll stick around for a few more issues to see where it's going though!

Same here.

I'd also like to second El Sombrero, couple of pages really fell out of the book due to ineffective transitions.

I also have to agree with Joe Acro, if it turns out that this is about evil corporations doing evil things with humans to prosper, well then, not the plot line I'm really interested in.

[matt levin]

I enjoyed it enough to follow certainly two or three more issues.
Setting seems to be becoming an Image staple though: Drifter, Copperhead come readily to mind-- if not specifically setting, then certainly the hard-ass female lead (it's not that I dislike this, but rather that the characters seem to be fairly interchangeable) in an SF setting in crisis. But as I say, Southern Cross...heh, like Drifter and Copperhead...has a good enough intro for me to follow along for a few issues more.

[HsssH]

Well in general we are getting more and more "hard-ass female" leads, lots of people want to cash in on diversity and other hip things. A bit of off-topic but I really am annoyed how certain books get praised because they have female lead, or black lead or some LGBT representation while content itself is pretty bad.

[Deathstroke]

I picked the first issue up off the rack and thought it was pretty good. Definitely worth continuing forward to see where the story goes.

[HaroldAllnut]

This book was a pleasant surprise to me! I didn't hear too much about it earlier, so I expected more of a deep space crime book than a horror story; aside from the final panel, the book definitely seemed more crime-oriented than horror-oriented. I love both genres, so it's a win-win for me.

It's nice to see that Cloonan can churn out good work at the keyboard, as well as at the drawing table. The characters' dialogue felt pretty fresh. I think Belanger was a perfect choice of artist, too. He definitely has a Cloonanesque vibe, but there's some Paul Pope in there, too. That double-page splash of the spaceport early in the book really knocked me out. Also, Lee Loughridge's colors were beautiful.

They've definitely got me for a few more issues, at the very least.