Seasons #1

Recap
Come one, come all, to the amazing new big top show! Your Ringleaders, Rick Remender and Paul Azaceta, invite you to this fantastical double-length premiere issue of their new ongoing series! A decade after the Seasons sisters' beloved parents disappeared, a wicked carnival arrives in town. Within its big tent is a dazzling show led by an eldritch ringleader who offers comers-all a window into their heart's every desire-provided they each leave a piece of themselves behind... Attendees arrive to enjoy the breathtaking entertainment obscured behind its canvas folds-and they leave distracted by the glint of these cursed mirrors.
Now it's up to the often-overlooked youngest sister, Spring, to find her missing sisters and put a stop to the Faustian hold the carnival and its cursed mirrors have on its guests. But will she be able to piece her shattered family back together before it's too late for them all?
Review
Humor and fear both hold court in Seasons #1. Foreboding gives way to a classic comedy of errors in a blending of tones that shouldn’t work but somehow does.
Neocairo is silent in Seasons #1. In the span of 48 hours, something decimated the city. In the heart of the ruined city, a carnival troupe is packing up. But all is well in the city of New Gaulia where Spring Seasons, atop her Moped, drives haphazardly through the city in pursuit of a letter that is caught in the breeze. Past a bookstore, through a bakery, and up on a jetpack she goes, desperate to catch the urgent letter from her sister Autumn.
There is no short description that adequately sums up what happens in Seasons #1. It’s marked by two massive, almost whiplash inducing tone shifts. The bulk of the issue exclusively follows Spring in an extended comedy of errors that at times borders on farce. It comes out of nowhere, following four pages that set up the mystery of Neocairo’s devastation. But from that point the comedy story thread dominates, not cutting away until the issue’s final five pages. At that point Seasons #1 recaptures the more urgent and serious tone that the comic opened with.
Lopes’ colors go a long way to facilitating these tone changes. The far more serious and foreboding opening and closing sequences use a color palette centered around sepia while the comedic story thread that fills the bulk of Seasons #1 is rich with soft but vivid colors that run as wide a color spectrum as possible.
This long sequence with Spring also communicates a great deal about the character and her probable temperament in relation to her sisters. Seasons #1’s credit page tells the reader that there are four Seasons sisters (with the obvious first names). After this introduction to Spring, it can be easily assumed that she is the less serious of the four, perhaps even a bit ridiculous by comparison. Remender plants the seed for that idea in the reader’s mind very effectively without ever having to stop the action to explicitly say it.
The series’ first issue is extremely light on plot. A curiosity develops between a visual element seen early in the Neocairo sequence and later repeated with Spring. But it’s only in Seasons #1’s final pages that story tension really begins.
Unlike Lopes’ coloring, Azaceta’s art doesn’t shift in style between the bookends and ongoing comedic storyline that dominates the issue. There are only subtle differences. The opening sequence in Neocairo is slightly more detailed (though this is in part a function of the condition of the setting). And the other bookend uses light shading that adds depth to faces and background which elevates tension.
Most of Seasons #1 has an unserious tone to it visually. This isn’t to say it isn’t very good work or somehow undermines that issue. Spring’s face is expressive, her emotions obvious and accessible. Much of this owes to Azaceta’s focus on her eyes. He’s quite effective at tracking eyelines, especially when Spring’s focus shifts from something in one panel to something in another. And where other characters don’t have quite the wide open window to emotion on their faces as Spring, they still look highly energetic. The bulk of the issue has a classic cartoon feel when it comes to characters’ movement and expressions. For the comedy of errors that most of Seasons #1 is, this works very well.
There are no shortage of sound effects here, most of them coming during the long sequence featuring Spring. Remender uses a whimsical selection, and Wooton makes them even more fun. His placement is always well connected to whatever is making the sound, and his color choices are less about any long running consistency than what adds extra splash to a panel.
Final Thoughts
Seasons #1 is a compelling first issue. In part that’s because it’s a bit of an enigma, not making entirely obvious what the comic is or will be about. What is obvious, though, is that it’s a high quality comic. In the end, Seasons #1 is fun, funny, and sure to hold your interest.
Seasons #1: A Comedy of Letters
- Writing - 9/109/10
- Storyline - 7.5/107.5/10
- Art - 9/109/10
- Color - 8/108/10
- Cover Art - 8/108/10