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.

Re:What are they thinking???

[Painaxl]

While I'll admit that there are a few preachy moments in MGS that don't seem to fit, I'm a huge fan of the games' storylines. Granted, the gameplay is probably the best aspect of a MGS game, but the stories are what truly separate the game from everything else.

Re:What are they thinking???

[Anonymous Coward]

Ah yes, the plot... [penny-arcade.com]

Also, Psycho Mantis is a curse upon us all. He is the king of stupid.

Re:What are they thinking???

[UltimaL337Star]

Many fans will admit that the story can get a little.. ridiculous, especially torwards the end of the game. You gotta understand that japanese consumers LIVE on watching drama in media, fat guy's ramming eachother, l33t chef cooking shows. It's all overdone, and they know it, but it's also entertaining

Okay, I'll bite. :)

[pragma_x]

The cutscenes were great, but I do miss the fast-forward feature from MGS2 when I go back and replay MGS1. Sure they disrupted the gameplay, but that's the point, isn't it? IMO, virtually nobody but John Woo can manage to allow sheer gunplay to develop characters half as well as good-old-fashioned dialogue.

I, for one, feel the storyline in MGS1 was great. I've always felt that the genius here was that it refused to take itself too seriously as it repeatedly makes fun of itself as a video game. After al

solid snake?

[Xoo]

If you've played Metal Gear Solid 2: SoL...
here's a fitting quote: "No! That is NOT Solid Snake!"

While I do appreciate different artistic styles, this is so radically different than Yogi Shinkawa's artistic style [yojishinkawa.com] that it might turn some people away from the comic...

then again, fanboys will be fanboys ;-)

Re:solid snake?

[Xoo]

And as a favor to the readers, here is a link [konamijpn.com] to Yogi Shinkawa's Metal Gear concept sketches (for the games, not the comic) so you have an idea of how different their styles are

Re:solid snake?

[simoniker]

It may be that's an early sketch from Ashley Wood - it's rather 'alternative', but his actual comic pages [comicbookresources.com] remind me reassuringly of the PlayStation 1 game, especially the color scheme - rather cool, actually.

Artwork? or....

[LGagnon]

The artwork doesn't look too different from the recent games. In fact, it's so close that I couldn't help but think that they might have just took screenshots of the game and blurred them in Photoshop (or maybe The GIMP - can't say for sure what they use :) ).

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?

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?

Re:Codec?

[Channard]

Just wait till they try doing the same with MGS2 and try fitting a whole 20 minute codec conversation into a single page.

In my restless dreams, I see that town-Silent Hill

[Channard]

Well, the company has done pretty well with the Silent Hill comics - 'Dying Inside'. The first two were superb, and stood alone as a story and the other two, while being a tad goth-heavy are pretty good as well.

wtf happened to his mullet

[cyrax777]

at least to me it looks like they gave him DBZ hair!

MGS - nice but kinda overrated

[Stormwatch]

I'd pick Headhunter [metacritic.com] over MGS any time.

WTF?

[Eros]

It doesn't really show in the picture, but this version of Snake better have a sweet-ass mullet.

I mean Snake just isn't Snake without one. ;P