Book Review: Teen Wolf issue #1

Book: Teen Wolf issue #1 by David Tischman with illustration by Stephen Mooney, color by Adam Chong and letters by Ed Dukeshire

Cover by Stephen Mooney and Adam Chong

Edition: Digital

Description:

Scott McCall's life is a living nightmare. Sure, he's co-captain of the Beacon Hills High Lacrosse Team and he's got a hot new girlfriend named Allison who adores him - but Scott was bitten by a werewolf. And every time he gets excited, the claws come out. And the hair. And the fangs. Which might be okay, except Allison's father leads a specially trained group of Hunters who want him dead. Scott's managed to keep his secret safe, but what happens when he can't reverse the process? In this original comic book story based on MTV's new hit series, Scott's stuck - and nothing can change him back. Will he stay a Werewolf forever? The horror begins here.




Rating: 2 stars

Review:

Teen Wolf issue #1 is set during the first season of the Teen Wolf  TV series as it follows Scott McCall who is still adjusting to being a werewolf while trying to maintain a normal life as a teenager. But how normal can his life be when his girlfriend Allison Argent's father is a hunter who goes after werewolves. At least her father Chris Argent doesn't know that Scott's a werewolf.

Scott was at his part-time job at the Beacon Hills Animal Clinic when he got a call from his best friend Stiles Stilinski letting him know that Derek Hale (a werewolf who was trying to help Scott) was looking for him. Derek has some kind of plan he wanted to talk to Scott about but didn't want to tell Stiles anything about it.

The next day, Scott is playing with his lacrosse team in a high school game versus a rival school. As a werewolf, Scott's new powers and enhanced abilities turned a bench warmer into a star player. Which did not go unnoticed by the co-team captain Jackson Whittemore, who is clearly jealous but he does have a point by calling out Scott for being a ball hog. As I mentioned before Scott is still adjusting to being a werewolf which he feels is a curse. However, I noticed that the one place he doesn't seem to be too worried about being a werewolf is when he is out on the field because he totally seems to enjoy using his enhanced abilities but not to the point of cheating. He's just so thrilled to be out there that I think that he forgets that he has these powers which he still doesn't have complete control of.

But his new powers would be of no use when he was hit on the field causing his shot to go off course leaving a fast moving ball heading towards Allison who was sitting in the stands. He tried his best to get to her in time but she was saved from a fatal injury when Derek caught the ball.

Derek still needed to talk to Scott but I guess showing up at the lacrosse game was probably not the best time. Scott and Stiles do meet up with Derek later that night in the woods where Derek pitched a ridiculous idea as a way to get Chris Argent out of the way to slow down his werewolf hunting efforts. Stiles was upset with the whole idea and decided to leave which unfortunately had him and Scott hoisted up in one of Argent's trap as well as being surrounded by a few hunters. But the strangest thing is, Scott and Stiles believe Derek set them up to be captured. But then why would he save them, it can't be as a way to gain their loyalty because at this point in the series, Stiles and Scott didn't really trust Derek and even if they worked with him on something that still wouldn't make those two loyal to him.

They were able to escape the trap and the hunters thanks to Derek but back at Scott's house another problem emerged concerning Scott's powers and two unexpected guests (Allison and Jackson) stopping by which I'm sure will be focused on in the second issue.

This was an okay story with equally average artwork that I needed to read twice because the first read was so bad due to the story relying so heavily on narrator boxes. It would have been fine if it was Scott McCall's point of view but it was an annoying third person that was leading the story.

For the second read, I avoided the narrator and just read the story, it's still a mediocre story but it read so much better. While I found Scott, Stiles and Jackson to be relatively in character, I thought Allison, Lydia Martin (who was shown with blonde hair) and Derek were out of character especially the dialogue for Allison and Lydia when they were at the lacrosse game, it was not very good. I don't understand why, since the writer could have watched a few episodes of Teen Wolf to get a better handle of their characters. Especially since this first issue was published on September 21, 2011 which was nearly a month after the first season's finale episode aired. I'm sure the author had enough time to do a little research before writing. I can't believe the writer would have Derek come up with such a terrible idea to frame Chris Argent, especially since he was usually too busy trying his best to avoid hunters. I also had an issue with Scott's werewolf eyes, they were shown several times as being red instead of the gold color they should be at this point in the series.

This wasn't the most engaging story but it also wasn't the worst either. It definitely could have been a much better read without the narrative boxes. Despite being disappointed with this first issue, I'm still interested in reading the other two issues and hopefully they will be a better read.