Written by: Chip Zdarsky
Art by: Kagan McLeod
Publisher: Image
Of all the problems to have with anything, “good idea, bad execution” is probably the worst. Bad ideas with good execution are often amusing, and bad ideas with bad execution are appealing to some deep, lizard-brain curiosity that enjoys that which should not be enjoyed. But good ideas with bad execution are just a sad squandering of potential and creativity. Issue 1 of Kaptura doesn’t quite hit “bad execution” levels, but it comes close, and I’m only left feeling let down at what is a great premise.
A small ship with a small crew is heading towards Mars for some good ol’ fashioned space exploration and terraforming. The crew doesn’t get along that well, with Keith being at the center of most conflicts, playing the part of the “lazy, sarcastic person who is only here because of family connections.” As the ship nears Mars, it comes across a strange anomaly shaped like a gateway, which sucks it in and spits it out on an alien planet filled with dangerous alien wildlife and people.
Okay, so the premise itself isn’t new, but Kaptara is a comedy, and I’ll certainly accept that as a new take on what’s historically a fun setup regardless.
The problems, however, are twofold. The first is that Kaptara really, really wants to be funny and only hits the mark about 20% of the time; the second is that Keith is an annoying character and damn near impossible to sympathize with. It doesn’t help that he’s the one failing at humor.
The first five to ten pages of Kaptara #1 do land some solid jokes, and I actually really liked Keith until around page 16. As soon as real danger hits though, his shtick just stops working, and almost everything he says after that point made me cringe. Around page 20, most of the small crew has gotten lost, and we’re stuck with nothing but Keith and his stupid attitude, which mostly involves namedropping pop culture movies like Gravity and being generally unhelpful.
Pop culture is filled with examples of the “sarcastic asshole” that work, but the reason why someone like Tony Stark doesn’t get aggravating is because he isn’t useless. Well, that and he’s also funny, but being Iron Man certainly makes him easy to root for, cynicism and general abrasiveness aside. Keith, however, is only abrasive and annoying. He doesn’t pull his weight or do anything of use, and that coupled with his attitude leads me to just not like him.
It might be different if he were the secondary character, but as it stands, he’s the protagonist, so we’re stuck with him.
Thankfully, there seems to be more to him, and I am somewhat curious to see where he’ll go, both physically and metaphorically as a person.
I also want to briefly touch on Keith’s sexual orientation, since Kaptara certainly wants the readers to know that he is gay. I’m glad for that–we need more diversity in everything–but I don’t think any of it’s handled all that well. His outing is more “told and not shown” and feels like a piece of exposition vomit rather than character building, and Kieth himself makes one too many stupid jokes about it. There’s no subtlety here, and it’s certainly not played off as anything natural. I look at Prometheus: Fire and Stone which had two gay characters and did everything so seamlessly and well, and I look at Kaptara and just kind of frown at how hamfisted the idea is presented.
On the positive side, the world of Kaptara is off to a great start, being filled with some nice monsters and a race of aliens that combine sci-fi tech with fantasy weaponry. I really like that kind of stuff, and the art style sells it all very well. I like the look of this comic, and the coloring is really spot-on. When it comes to new technology and monsters, I’ve a feeling the art team here will deliver.
I’m honestly willing to give Kaptara another chance when Issue 2 rolls around. Now that the main setup is out of the way and the exposition is mostly gone, maybe Keith will finally get a chance to do something other than make me cringe. The seeds of his character are here, and they look to be interesting ones. I’m just hoping the execution improves.
