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A review by trike
Livewire Volume 1: Fugitive by Vita Ayala
2.0
We join our program already in progress. Which is a bit of a problem, because I have no emotional connection to these characters.
At some point back in the 1970s or 1980s, Marvel editor Jim Shooter said, “Every issue is someone’s first issue.” Meaning writers had to figure out a way to succcinctly convey what had gone before while moving the story forward. Sometimes it was a useful but clunky one-page flashback, which eventually evolved into a couple paragraphs that began, “Previously in...” The best ones wove it into the story itself.
None of that happens here. I have no idea who these people are or what abilities they have. The text at the beginning says the Livewire is a “teletechnopath” with “unrestricted access to the digital world.” A character very similar to this was in the late, great superhero TV series Alphas. Gary could hear electronic communications and control electrical devices. (https://youtu.be/V41R4vFvYe8) Except when we meet Livewire, she’s a combination of Magneto and Superman, saving people when two planes collide in mid-air. A story moment that’s never referred to again. I don’t get that.
Eventually we learn that she crashed the entire electrical grid in the US, apparently via an EMP, killing tens of thousands of people when pacemakers quit and planes fell out of the sky. They keep hitting that gong over and over, with no real resolution to it. She keeps saying she was “protecting our kind” and saving her kids, but no one is on her side and we never see these kids.
It really just feels like a muddled version of the excellent Alphas. I don’t know what story comes before this, but this is called volume 1. Not a great jumping-on point, frankly.
At some point back in the 1970s or 1980s, Marvel editor Jim Shooter said, “Every issue is someone’s first issue.” Meaning writers had to figure out a way to succcinctly convey what had gone before while moving the story forward. Sometimes it was a useful but clunky one-page flashback, which eventually evolved into a couple paragraphs that began, “Previously in...” The best ones wove it into the story itself.
None of that happens here. I have no idea who these people are or what abilities they have. The text at the beginning says the Livewire is a “teletechnopath” with “unrestricted access to the digital world.” A character very similar to this was in the late, great superhero TV series Alphas. Gary could hear electronic communications and control electrical devices. (https://youtu.be/V41R4vFvYe8) Except when we meet Livewire, she’s a combination of Magneto and Superman, saving people when two planes collide in mid-air. A story moment that’s never referred to again. I don’t get that.
Eventually we learn that she crashed the entire electrical grid in the US, apparently via an EMP, killing tens of thousands of people when pacemakers quit and planes fell out of the sky. They keep hitting that gong over and over, with no real resolution to it. She keeps saying she was “protecting our kind” and saving her kids, but no one is on her side and we never see these kids.
It really just feels like a muddled version of the excellent Alphas. I don’t know what story comes before this, but this is called volume 1. Not a great jumping-on point, frankly.