Olympia #1
Recap
When Olympian, immortal hero from a comic book fantasy realm, falls to Earth, he strikes up an acquaintance with one of his comics’ biggest fans. As the veil protecting the multiverses begins to break, it’s up to Olympian to defeat Vilayne and restore balance to the multiverse. But at what cost?
Review
Olympia, much like many superhero and fantasy books, tries to fight a battle with nostalgia. It loses, of course, because nostalgia is far too powerful a force for most single issues to fight back against, but it does give a valiant effort. The elements are certainly all there: a valiant blond hero, a villainous dark-haired antagonist, and a child who gets to live out his childhood dream of meeting the hero he’s always worshipped.
However, while Olympia does do a decent job of making readers realize that heroes aren’t always all they’re cracked up to be in some ways, it’s certainly not enough to define the character of Olympian or make him distinguishable from the antagonist Vilayne. The major cues that we are supposed to take as far as who the hero and villain are nested in visuals, with Olympian being the traditional gold-wearing, blond-haired hero, and Vilayne being dark haired and…well, named Vilayne. There is a moment, of course, where Vilayne demonstrates his Vilayne-ry by killing a guard; however, given the Olympian claimed he would destroy the whole Earth to get home, that hardly defines one as better or worse than the other.
The character of Elon also falls a bit flat. He is bullied, yes, and he has lost his father; however, aside from these cues, we are given nothing about him to drive sympathy or relatability. He likes comics and…little else is known. He is completely ambiguous in many ways, likely so that the audience can project onto him. However, this is not a particularly effective example of projection.
The art itself is reminiscent of early Thor and Red Sonja and Conan, which is effective as that seems to be the mood that the comic is trying to convey. Some of the character design choices are questionable (the wrong move and Olympian’s chest plate would break his ribs like twigs), and the color choices often hark a bit too strongly back to other comics (Vilayne with his black hair and green and gold suit is far too strong an homage to Marvel’s Loki). However, the art itself is not bad, and fits well within the context of the story being told.
Overall, the book is not terrible. At this time, it doesn’t particularly stand out. This is truly a shame, as I feel it has a great deal of potential. Time will tell if it lives up to that potential and blows my expectations out of the water.
Final Thoughts
Olympia is a valiant but somewhat futile effort to recapture the magic of childhood fantasy.
Olympia #1: Twilight of the Gods
- Writing - 6/106/10
- Storyline - 6.5/106.5/10
- Art - 7/107/10
- Color - 6/106/10
- Cover Art - 7/107/10