Metal Gear Solid Gets All Comic

Thanks to Comic Book Resources for its article discussing the new Metal Gear Solid comic book series, launching this September from IDW Publishing. According to writer Kris Oprisko, the Ashley Wood-illustrated comic "follows the story line of the original game, in which Snake must infiltrate an Alaskan island overrun by a genetically-enhanced terrorist group. His mission: to find and rescue two hostages as well as ending the terrorist threat - a threat that includes the specter of a nuclear strike." Wood, who has "previously done some work for Konami on their Contra video game", provides an interesting visual take on Solid Snake, and elsewhere, IDW President Ted Adams reveals that "CVO [Covert Vampiric Operations] is being developed by Konami as a video game."

What are they thinking???

[Rayonic]

The story is, bar none, the worst aspect of any Metal Gear Solid game. Poorly written, convoluted, full of cliches, and just plain awful. Now mix that with a heavy dose of preachy anti-war and anti-nuclear garbage (as opposed to a non-preachy and non-garbage argument).

The only good thing about the MGS series' story was that the cutscenes (not the codecs) were well-directed. Everything else about it clashed horribly with the generally good gameplay.

Codec?

[NedR]

At first, in a lot of ways, parts of Metal Gear Solid seem perfect to adapt into comic book form, particularly fights involving the cyborg ninja. But what about the codec scenes? How are the supposed to adapt those into the comic without making it ridiculously long and tedious?

Digicam Comics?

[hiroshi912681]

I was about to say the same thing. It looks mostly like screenshots of the game blurred. But if you think about it, a lot of American comic books are going for the ultrarealistic look with blurs. I saw a Batman comic book not too recently that looked as if they dressed up a man in a bat suit, took pictures, and put crappy photoshop filters all over the comic. It was absurd. Drawing photorealism is an accomplishment in itself, but it isn't visually appealing to me. Especially when you make the Dark Knight look just like a regular guy in a stupid costume. There's no stylization, they leave no room for your imagination. And honestly, reading a blurry comic would make me want to gouge my eyes out.

And is it just me, or is Canada going the opposite way in its comics?