Review: Sirens

I picked up the first four issues of this sci-fi series, written and illustrated by George Perez. The reason, of course, is Sherita. While browsing in Oxford Comics, the below image caught my eye and I was immediately stoked to see this beautiful sistah front and center in a sci-fi comic book.  Without hesitation, I snatched up all the available issues and asked about the ETA of the remaining two issues.  Of course, I was not able to procure them prior to my departure...and you'll soon learn why I'm not pressed about it either.

HER, of course.

The concept sounded great: a team of legendary female sheroes kicking ass and taking names. The comic is beautifully illustrated and I enjoyed looking at the pictures.  However, I am not a child and prefer a good story alongside my images.  Sirens fails to deliver. I had no clue as to what was going on.  The story contains elements of time travel, but that was all I could discern.  It is bursting with what oftentimes feels like superfluous dialogue, but the chatter is nonsensical when there is no backstory nor context in which to frame it.

After each issue, I was like, "What the fuck did I just read?"

The Sirens are either heroes or villains, or both.  The author does not make it clear--at least not in what I've read so far. There is all of this stuff going on but I found it difficult to connect it to anything, as I don't have an understanding of what I should know as a reader.  Nothing makes sense, and I am not even sure how many sirens there are supposed to be.  

The author isn't consistent with name attribution and I found myself wondering who was who half the time.  It was very hard to keep reading and I finally gave up midway through issue four.   I am not planning to purchase the remaining two issues, nor do I care to try and re-read to figure everything out.  There is no way Mr. Perez can rectify this massive storytelling wrong in two issues.  At least not to my satisfaction.  

Sherita, aka "Interface"

Now on to the reason I picked up the comic: Sherita.  She's the "interface" for the Sirens' ship and her job is to do interfacey things.  That is all I can say about her.  Because she's a computer, she has no depth and interacts with her fellow sirens on a surface level.  Mr. Perez chickened out and made the only WoC completely and totally irrelevant.  Her being the ship's computer doesn't impress me at all, so he gets no points or props from me in regards to diversity.  Close only counts in horseshoes.

There was also mention of a siren named Tremor, who could cause earthquakes.  But she played no role; she is mentioned in a brief flashback.  

And she looks like she can kick all the ass.

There is a good idea here, but it is buried under layers and layers of confusing exposition and clunky dialogue.  The story is overburdened with too many characters and underburdened with focus.  

I mean...what the hell, man???