The Good
Melody is athletic and tough, while her brother, Max, is nerdy and failing gym. This son and daughter team are thrusted into weird adventures as their uncle Ronald comes into their lives and takes them through the museum of the weird.
Since Disney bought out Marvel, doomsayers have been prophesying that very soon, our beloved Marvel comics will be filled with Disney characters. Today is your day of reckoning... kinda. It's a Disney story complete in a Marvel comic book, but completely outside of Marvel's continuity, the way it should be done.
What SEEKERS OF THE WEIRD does extremely well is capture the Disney feel, or essence. This truly feels like the opening to one of their 70s or 80s live action films. There's a quick set-up, and then we're off to the races as the world Max and Melody once knew is turned on its head. Writer Brandon Seifert gives this book a very familiar feel and a story anyone can relate to: Two not-so-alike siblings who are brought together for a greater cause: family. Throw in a dash of Uncle Ronald, who reminds me of a cross between a more coherent Jack Sparrow and one part Cale Tucker from Titan AE (I'm aware that's not a Disney film, but I didn't want to reference Treasure Planet) and you have something that's really accessible to new readers because they'll be uber-familiar with the ideas and character types within this first issue.
Seifert, who is primarily known for his much darker and adult titles like HELLRAISER and WITCH DOCTOR, does a great job at giving the readers a solid opening book that is one part adventure and another part mild fantasy. Everything is presented up front through some very nice dialogue and it transitions smoothly into the rest of the book. Seifert's style really starts to seep through later in the issue when things get a bit darker and crazy.
The art team does a pretty good job here, with Karl Moline on pencils, Rick Magyar on inks, and Jean-Francois Caramagna on colors. It does a fine job at telling the story, but what's really great here is are some of the more "out there" designs, like the flaming skull coming out of Uncle Ronald's pistol or the entity coming out of the Candleman. There's a lot of cool things happening in the book, and while they all seem a bit out there and confusing, I'm actually ok with it all.
The Bad
Who is this book for? What's the intended age? While this really does have that great "Disney feel" to it, I'm just not sure who should be reading this. It's a very fun adventure story, but it's a bit dark. No one is getting murdered or anything, but it has a very Something Wicked This Way Comes feel to it. I'd say this is something for teens, but the dialogue feels a bit younger than that. It's a very weird combination.
On occasion, I had some small problems with Caramagna's colors, mainly that during a few scenes, the colors pop out way too much and feel a little out of place. It only happened during a couple of panels though.
The Verdict
I really had no intention on picking this one up, but I'm truly glad I did. SEEKERS OF THE WEIRD is a really fun book and a brilliant collaboration between Disney and Marvel. This is a fantastic start to an adventure comic that is very reminiscent of earlier, live-action Disney films. There's a lot of creativity and imagination in this book, and I'm glad it's around. If you feel like having a bit of fun this week, I recommend picking up this first issue.