Joshua Hale Fialkov (Writer) and Jeremy Haun (Artist)
Alibi tells the story of two brothers working together to perform various assassinations while one sits locked inside an interrogation room. As with any good espionage story, Alibi features a number of twists, turns, code words, and betrayals. While it is a fun read that will keep you guessing, Alibi suffers from one major problem: It feels like part of a larger picture that there is no way of gaining knowledge of (due to the nature of the Pilot Season). Each story has one chance to make a good impression and, while I am intrigued by what’s here, it feels like too many pieces are missing to get a solid grasp on what is really going on. Part of me really hopes that this is one of the comics to get picked up as an ongoing series.
Joshua Hale Fialkov shows he has a nice grasp on what makes a story like this work. The characters are interesting, the dialogue is clever, and the style of storytelling (he jumps between the two brothers) works quite well. If only he had considered the nature of the Pilot Season a bit more so that the plot came together more quickly. It honestly feels as though this issue takes place right in the middle of a much larger arc instead of acting as a stand alone story or the beginning of something bigger. What makes Genius work so well earlier this month is it feels as though the story is just getting started.
Alibi is a pretty nice looking book all around thanks to some good work by Jeremy Haun. Particularly impressive is his use of color during the Middle East scenes. An extra layer of detail over everything would have been welcome, but that is a fairly minor complaint on an otherwise solid effort.
I wanted to like Alibi as much as I enjoyed Genius, but the storytelling just wouldn’t let me. There are some good ideas here and this type of story could go a long way in a comic series, but this issue, taken on its own, feels both incomplete and disjointed. I honestly believe this series could go places, but Joshua Fialkov has made a rookie mistake, chosing a poor place to start a debut issue. (Grade: C)
-Kyle Posluszny