Many times in my comic book reading life, I have wanted something to be great and it just hasn’t been. One such title is the independently released book Facebeast. The name alone made me want to read it. How could something like Facebeast not be awesome? Couple that with a story focusing on a man whose superpower comes from his staggeringly large beard, and the possibilities seem endless.
Sadly, the potential is wasted in two issues that are so busy being clever that they forget to be entertaining. Issue #1 begins during a convenience store robbery. The opening exchange between the masked robbers and the annoyingly bored cashier ends with the robber yelling because they don’t have his favorite soda. Wow, hilarity. Then, as if that wasn’t enough screaming laughter for you, the robbers go outside and discover they’re almost on empty. Sadly, they’re pulled up to a pump that has to be paid inside. One robber refuses to go back inside to pay because that would be, and this is a quote, “awwwkkkwaaaard.”
Yeah, I think you’re starting to get the idea.
Suddenly, the robbers are attacked by something dark and stringy. Facebeast appears and starts fighting crime. Except, oops, he gets bashed in the face and taken hostage. So ends issue #1. The second issue of Facebeast doesn’t fare much better. This time, we’re entertained by the origin of our hero. Now, dig this. In his normal life, Facebeast works at an animal testing facility. One day, some his friends found Bigfoot, drugged him and brought him to the lab. An explosion cut our hero’s arm, and a batch of Bigfoot urine got into his system. From that, Facebeast became bigger, stronger and, naturally, with a giant beard he can control to fight bad guys.
As Facebeast escapes from his captors, he’s stripped of his clothing and must walk around naked. That’s okay; Facebeast has decided he deserves a “victory ice cream.” Ready! Set! Go Merriment! I understand what writer Josh Dykstra is doing. I get the idea of parody, and the idea of the piss-take on pop culture. The problem is, there’s a fine line between clever and snarky, and Dykstra crosses it. By the end of Facebeast #2, I had zero interest in #3.
Kate Carleton’s pencils are nothing too spectacular either. A title this awash in parody needs art that brings the work up a level. Carleton’s work is exactly what you’d expect. She’s decided that the panels should reflect exactly the level of easy “humor” the writing does. Carleton isn’t a bad artist; she just doesn’t do anything that you couldn’t see in any other random indie comic.
It’s too bad Facebeast doesn’t live up to the title.
(2 Story, 2 Art)
